Box 1 - Introduction
The Church and Society
Sweden has long been regarded as a welfare state.
But it was actually not that long ago that hardship was immense.
Many people suffered from hunger, cold, and disease.
Several of the functions we now take for granted—such as education, healthcare, social services, and elderly care—originated from church initiatives. Today,
responsibility often lies with the state, regions, and municipalities, and these services have gradually come to be funded through our taxes instead
of donations.
In our exhibition this summer, we want to highlight some of these services and their history.
Box 2 - The Church and the Law
have been closely intertwined throughout Swedish history. From completely dictating the legal order during the Middle Ages and functioning as a state church for centuries, church and state are now separated.
An overarching timeline highlights the historical development between the Church and Swedish law:
- The Middle Ages and Canon Law (12th–16th centuries): The introduction of Christianity fundamentally transformed Swedish legislation. The Catholic Church’s own laws, called canon law, applied alongside the secular provincial laws. The Church assumed responsibility for family law, marriage, and moral offenses.
- The Reformation and the State Church (16th–17th centuries): Through Gustav Vasa’s Reformation, ties with the Pope were severed and the Church was placed under the authority of the king. This was further cemented at the Uppsala Synod in 1593, when Sweden became an orthodox Evangelical Lutheran state church. The Church Law of 1686 made priests an extended arm of the state, overseeing the population’s morality and record-keeping.
- Secularization and Freedom of Religion (20th century): Laws regulating citizenship and faith began to loosen. The first true law on freedom of religion was introduced in 1951, granting Swedes the right to leave the Church without simultaneously leaving the state.
- The Separation of Church and State (2000): On January 1, 2000, the Church of Sweden was formally separated from the state. Through the Act on the Church of Sweden, it was given the status of an independent religious denomination, although certain special regulations remain.
Box 3 - The Temperance Movement, the Labor Movement, Popular Education, and the Church
These four concepts together form the backbone of the emergence and democratization of modern Sweden. They arose as a reaction to the estate-based society, the social problems of industrialization, and the lack of political freedom during the 19th century. Together, they functioned as a “school of democracy,” where ordinary people learned how to organize themselves.
How the movements are connected
- Revival movements and the Church: During the 19th century, the popular revival movement (the Free Churches) challenged the monopoly of the state church and the established authorities. It was within the framework of the church and revival movements that the model of voluntary associations first developed.
- The Temperance Movement: Alcohol was an enormous social problem. The temperance movement partly grew out of the revival movement and became a moral and social force that fought for sobriety as well as for human rights. Many early trade union leaders were active temperance advocates.
- The Labor Movement: As industrialization accelerated in the late 19th century, workers organized to demand better conditions, higher wages, and democratic rights.
- Popular Education: In order to change society, people needed education. Popular education, driven jointly by the temperance movement, the Free Churches, and the labor movement, laid the foundation for the study associations that still offer education for all today.
Key historical developments
- Pillars of democracy: It was within these popular movements that people practiced the skills of association life—such as writing minutes, giving speeches, and voting—which laid the foundation for Sweden’s representative democracy.
- Education and learning: The demand for popular education was about giving workers and the poor access to knowledge that had previously been reserved for the wealthy. This created ideals of education that helped shape the Swedish welfare state.
- From conflict to cooperation: The historical relationship between the established state church and the popular movements (such as the Free Churches and the labor movement) was initially very tense. The church often represented power and authority, while the movements represented grassroots perspectives and change. Today, however, this division has largely faded.
Box 4 & 5 - The history
It begins with a man who had a red beard, a fiery temper, and an empty state treasury.
Gustav Vasa had just become king of a country that was tired of war, Danes, and high taxes. The only problem was that the state was poor. Truly poor. But there was one organization that had land, buildings, silver, and influence in every parish from Scania to Lapland: the Church.
When the ideas of the Reformation from Martin Luther reached Sweden, Gustav Vasa saw an opportunity. At the Diet of Västerås in 1527, it was decided that the Crown would take control of large parts of the Church’s wealth. Monasteries were closed, the power of bishops was reduced, and the Church became increasingly tied to the Swedish state.
One could say that Gustav Vasa not only built a state—he also built what might have been the world’s most well-organized local administrative network.
While the king’s soldiers were few and the roads poor, the Church was everywhere. In every parish, the church stood at the center of the village. The priest knew who was born, married, and died. He knew the families, the farms, and the problems of the community. If the king wanted to spread information, there was no better network.
Over the following centuries, something quite unique developed. The Church became not only a place for worship but also society’s information center, population registry office, educational authority, and social meeting place.
On Sundays, everyone gathered. Royal decrees were read aloud. People learned what was happening in the kingdom. There, rich and poor, peasants and nobles met.
And then came reading.
In many countries, literacy was something reserved for the elite. But in Sweden, the Church wanted ordinary people to be able to read the Bible and Luther’s catechism. Priests conducted household examinations and traveled from farm to farm. The questions could be difficult:
- Can you read?
- Do you know the creed?
- Can you explain the Sixth Commandment?
No one wanted to stand there stumbling in front of their neighbors.
The result was that generation after generation learned to read. When public elementary schools were introduced in 1842, Sweden already had a remarkably high level of literacy compared to many other countries.
During the 19th century, something new began to happen. The state and municipalities grew stronger. Schools became municipal. Healthcare expanded. Social services were gradually transferred from the Church to public institutions.
But the Church did not disappear.
Instead, it changed.
From having been the state’s local arm, it began to become the people’s local gathering place.
This is where the concept of the “people’s church” (folkkyrka) truly emerged. The idea was that the Church should not be an association only for the particularly devout or active. It should be the church of the entire population—a church that baptized children, married couples, buried the dead, and was present in people’s lives regardless of how often they attended services.
During the 20th century, this idea grew even stronger. The Church started youth groups, choirs, family activities, open preschools, international aid programs, and social work. Often, the Church appeared where there was a need long before the municipality had even begun drafting a report on the issue.
When the formal ties between Church and state were dissolved in the year 2000, the idea lived on: a church that seeks to be close to the entire population, not only the most religious.
So the story of the Swedish “people’s church” actually begins with a king who needed money and control over his kingdom. But it ends with something much larger: a network of churches, priests, parish educators, musicians, volunteers, and parishioners who, for nearly five hundred years, have been present in everyday life.
From Gustav Vasa’s power project to today’s open preschools, choir rehearsals, and discussion groups runs a long historical thread. And perhaps that is why the “people’s church” still feels so Swedish: it has stood at the center of villages, towns, and people’s lives longer than almost any other institution in the country.
There is an old Swedish tradition that many forget when talking about welfare and education. We often think that municipalities have always done what they do today. But if you turn the clock back a few hundred years, the picture looks quite different.
Before Sweden had a developed school system, the Church bore much of the responsibility for education. A typical farmer or tenant needed to be able to read—not primarily to pass exams or write essays, but to access the Bible, the hymnbook, and Luther’s catechism. Priests held household examinations where they assessed not only religious knowledge but also reading ability. In this way, the Church contributed to Sweden becoming one of Europe’s most literate countries long before the modern public school system took hold.
When compulsory schooling was introduced in 1842, it did not come to a population unfamiliar with reading. On the contrary, it built upon a literacy that the Church had helped establish over generations.
A similar pattern can be seen in modern times. Take open preschools as an example. In many parts of Sweden, church-based child activities, family gatherings, and meeting places for parents existed long before municipalities expanded today’s open preschool system. Churches offered spaces where parents of young children could meet, children could play, and families could find community. When municipalities later developed similar initiatives, there were already experiences and working methods that churches had cultivated over a long time.
One could say that the Church has, on several occasions, functioned as a kind of social laboratory. First, it helped people learn to read before the state expanded schooling. Later, it created meeting places for families with young children before many municipalities did so on a larger scale. Afterward, the public sector often took over, expanded, and made these services accessible to all.
This does not mean, of course, that the Church alone created either the school system or open preschools. But history reminds us that many of the institutions we take for granted today have emerged through cooperation between civil society, the Church, and the public sector. Sometimes, the path has led from the parish hall to the municipal office.
So where do we stand today, and in what ways can the Church support civil society? Time will tell!
Box 6 - The music
From as early as the 19th century, choral singing developed through popular movements, the church, and schools, becoming a way for people to gather and express a sense of community. Today, around 600,000 Swedes sing in choirs, both in cities and in rural areas, and the tradition includes everything from sacred music to popular music. Choral singing is seen not only as a cultural heritage but also as a living social activity that can also provide measurable health benefits.
Currently, there are 45 choirs within Lund Parish, with a total of over 1,000 choir members!
Box 7 - Help in crises
Social Sustainability
The Church of Sweden is a major actor in the social sector through its nationwide work in Sweden and its international development efforts around the world. With human dignity at its core, it contributes to reducing vulnerability, strengthening social cohesion, and promoting respect for human rights.
A rights-based approach underpins both our own work and that of our partners. This means striving to address the root causes of marginalisation. The Church of Sweden’s starting point is always to affirm and strengthen people’s own abilities, responsibility, and opportunities. We see every person as sacred and as a rights-holder—not as a passive recipient of aid.
Together with others, we share responsibility for social development, without replacing the welfare systems that public institutions are meant to provide. Instead, the Church of Sweden complements public services. Part of its mission is also to use its voice to influence decision-makers when people are suffering.
The Church of Sweden and Crises
In times of crisis, the Church of Sweden is expected to provide conversational support and rituals. This applies both to crises affecting individuals and to those involving many people.
For this reason, there is an on-call priest service (Jourhavande präst), which can be reached via the emergency number 112 or through an online chat. The service is open every evening and night, and anyone who feels worried, sad, lonely, or unable to cope with life can get in touch.
The Church of Sweden is also part of many crisis preparedness networks. In Lund, for example, two parish halls serve as “safety points” (Trygghetspunkter), which can be opened in the event of a major societal crisis when people need a place to gather.
The Church of Sweden is also responsible for ensuring that all deceased individuals, regardless of faith or worldview, receive a burial and a grave according to their wishes. This is a governmental assignment separate from church activities, and it reflects a significant level of trust placed in the Church of Sweden by the state.
Box 8 - Responsibility for the poor
The Church had a special responsibility for the poor during the Middle Ages, but individual people were also expected to care for them. Helping others was considered a good deed, and good deeds were seen as proof that one had repented of one’s sins and wished to improve. Poverty was not viewed as shameful; it was regarded as a misfortune, which—like many other things—depended on God’s will. Those who were poor had fewer opportunities to help others and therefore bore less responsibility.
With the Reformation in the 16th century, this medieval way of thinking changed. Wealth began to be seen as a sign of God’s grace, while poverty came to be regarded as a personal failure. However, it would take another couple of centuries before poverty came to be seen as a societal problem.
The earliest institutions for poor relief—apart from those connected to monasteries and pilgrimage sites—were hospitals, which served as a combination of medical and poor relief facilities. As early as the Middle Ages, they were funded through donations, and after the Reformation they were able to continue operating through endowed estates. Larger towns and diocesan centers had such hospitals.
The Hospital Ordinance of 1624 was the country’s first regulation concerning poor relief; all those unable to work were to be admitted to hospitals, except for children, who were to be placed in orphanages—though initially such institutions existed only in Stockholm.
According to the Poor Relief Ordinance of 1642, hospitals were to admit poor and sick individuals who lacked relatives able to support them, as well as people suffering from contagious diseases.
Those placed in hospitals were typically the elderly—especially older women living alone—as well as the sick and disabled, since anyone physically able to work did so. Unemployment was essentially unknown in the old agrarian society, where there was more heavy work to be done than there were people to do it. The link between poor relief and healthcare was therefore quite natural from the outset.
Under the 1642 ordinance, each parish was to establish a poorhouse. The earliest poorhouses, also known as parish cottages, were located near the church so that parishioners could bring gifts for the poor while attending services.
Rural parishes were slow to establish poorhouses, as farmers preferred a system combining boarding arrangements and “rotegång,” where the poor were rotated between farms within a parish. Poorhouses had to be financed through fees, and it was often difficult to agree on how these should be assessed. During the 19th century, most poor people lived in towns, where many were “house poor”—meaning they had housing but could not support themselves. As a result, assistance was more commonly given in the form of food, clothing, and small sums of money; only in extreme cases were people placed in poorhouses. However, poorhouses could also function as retirement homes, and some residents even brought their own furniture with them.
According to the Poor Relief Ordinance of 1847, a poor relief board was to be established in every parish.
Manfred Björkqvist—later a well-known bishop—took the initiative to introduce public home assistance for those in need. He received crucial support from Ida Norrby at the School of Domestic Science in Uppsala, and in 1919 training programs for home helpers (“hemsystrar”) were established.
Box 9 - Swedish healthcare
has developed from medieval monastic hospitals and poorhouses.
The concept of medieval monasteries in Sweden refers to the religious communities founded between around the year 1000 and the 1500s. These communities often followed a specific order, such as the Benedictines or the Cistercians, and built churches, monastic residences, refectories, and working farms. The monasteries were not isolated; they were connected to local communities through land ownership, staffing of churches, and often hospital and educational activities. During the Middle Ages, monasteries were important actors in cultural life and played a central role in the preservation and production of texts and art. After the Reformation, healthcare in Sweden changed. Monasteries were closed, and care institutions disappeared.
During the Reformation, hospitals were established to receive the elderly, children, and people with mental illness, but care was often poor.
In the 17th century, ideas about a healthy and strengthening lifestyle spread around spa environments. In Medevi—just north of Vadstena—Nordic’s first health spa was founded in 1678. A long series of private initiatives soon followed in Medevi’s footsteps. In the 19th century, the idea of a healthy life took new forms along Sweden’s west coast. The seaside resorts attracted visitors with beautiful facilities, saltwater bathing, and fresh winds.
In stark contrast was the fate that befell society’s “unfortunate children.” A criminal act could result in compulsory church penance. This obligation not only required a confession; the offender also had to ask for forgiveness and promise repentance and improvement. Church penance remained in effect until 1855, when various forms of penal labor became increasingly common.
In the mid-19th century, a change took place. Previously, it had been the responsibility of the Church to ensure that the poorest received medical care, but now the care of the sick was to be transferred to city councils and rural municipalities.
The suffering and hardship among the country’s poor were great. This was recognized, and inspired by the revival movement sweeping across northern Europe at the time, an interest in the deaconess movement began to grow among a group of patrons in Stockholm. They wanted to make a difference for those in need, and they also wanted to breathe new life into a church they perceived as rigid.
This year, Ersta Diakoni celebrates 175 years.
Sweden’s first nurse, Marie Cederschiöld, founded the country’s first nursing education program and built Ersta Hospital. Considering the role of women at the time she was active—from 1851 onward—her contribution is truly remarkable. In her footsteps, other innovative women and men have since advanced the fields of science, education, social care, and healthcare.
Box 10 & 11 are not part of the exhibition.