Orthodoxy in Sweden. Orthodox island in stockholm. But you did not remove the St. George ribbons
Material from ABC Pilgrims
Kingdom of Sweden(Swede. Konungariket Sverige), Sweden(Swede. Sverige listen)) is a state in Northern Europe on the Scandinavian Peninsula. The form of government is a constitutional monarchy. The name of the country comes from Old Norse Svea and Riga- "the state of the Sveevs". The capital is Stockholm. In terms of area (449,964 km²), Sweden ranks fifth among European countries.
Largest cities
- Stockholm
- Gothenburg
- Malmö
- Uppsala
Orthodoxy in Sweden
Orthodoxy in Sweden(Swede. Ortodoxy i Sverige) is one of the traditional Christian denominations that has become widespread in Sweden since the 17th century. Orthodoxy is practiced by about 0.6% of the country's population (~63.5 thousand people in 2013).
Story
The first seeds of Christianity were brought to Sweden in the 9th century by its first educator, Bishop Ansgar. Thanks to trade relations with Veliky Novgorod, as well as dynastic marriages, Orthodoxy was well known in medieval Sweden.
In the XII-XIII centuries, Russian Orthodox merchant churches, consecrated in honor of St. Nicholas, appeared in Sigtuna and on the island of Gotland.
Since 1617, after the conclusion of the Stolbovsky peace treaty, a merchant's house church was set up in Stockholm at the Russian trading court.
Since 1969, the Swedish Metropolis of the Patriarchate of Constantinople was established in Sweden, and since 1990, the British-Scandinavian Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Since the 1980s, the Greek Old Calendar Synod of Opponents has opened its mission in Sweden, headed by Bishop John (Deurloo) of Mariopol. The mission includes the Church of St. Constantine and Helena in Stockholm, the Assumption Church in Uppsala and the convent of St. Philotheus of Athens (work is underway on the construction of a male monastery). Since 1988, the mission has been publishing a Swedish-language magazine, Ortodoxt kyrkoliv.
In 2007, the Romanian Patriarchate established the Diocese of North Europe in Sweden.
Since 1962, an Orthodox magazine in Swedish called "Ortodox tidning" has been published in Stockholm.
Patriarchate of Constantinople
The Patriarchate of Constantinople is represented on the territory of the country by the Swedish and Scandinavian Metropolis, headed by Metropolitan Kleopa (Strongilis) of Stockholm and Scandinavia.
In the historical part of Stockholm, the Greeks acquired the cathedral of the Catholic Apostolic Church built in 1890, re-consecrated in 1970 in honor of St. George the Victorious. On November 9, 2014, the Nikolsky Monastery was established in the village of Rettvik.
As of 2013, the metropolis had 17,500 registered members and published a monthly leaflet in Greek.
Western European Exarchate
In 1931, the Russian Parish of the Transfiguration came under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and is currently part of the Archdiocese of Russian Parishes in Western Europe.
In the 2000s, the parishes of the Archdiocese in Sweden included Swedish-speaking parishes: in Everkalix, Gothenburg, there is also a Women's Monastery of the Exaltation of the Cross. The Preobrazhensky parish in Stockholm publishes the theological and informational parish magazine "The Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church" ("Kristi Förklarings ortodoxa kyrka") in Russian and Swedish versions.
Finnish Orthodox parish
After World War II, about 6,000 Orthodox Finns left Finland for Sweden, who founded Finnish Orthodox communities in several cities.
To date, due to the assimilation and reduction in the number of Orthodox Finns, only one parish has remained in the country - St. Nicholas in Stockholm.
The parish is under the jurisdiction of the Greek Swedish and Scandinavian Metropolis, and on December 25, 2014, Metropolitan Kleopa (Strongilis) ordained Priest Nikolaos Hammarberg, who became the new rector of the Finnish Nikolsky parish, at the St. George Cathedral in Stockholm.
Antiochian Patriarchate
The Antiochian Orthodox Church is represented in Sweden by a number of Arab Orthodox parishes that are part of the Central European Diocese, headed since 2013 by Metropolitan Ignatius (Al-Khushi). The Resurrection parish operates in the city of Gothenburg.
Moscow Patriarchate
The Russian Orthodox Church has been officially represented in Sweden since 1617 thanks to the first Russian church in honor of the Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos, founded at the Russian trading court under the Stolbovsky peace treaty. Later, the church became an embassy and was consecrated in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord.
Russian clergy - Archpriest Arseny Sudakov and priest Vasily Arkhangelsky carried out the first translations of the Liturgy of John Chrysostom and Basil the Great, laying the foundation for the translation of Orthodox liturgical and doctrinal books into Swedish.
In the 1980s, the Society of St. Sergius of Radonezh arose in Stockholm, which, having entered the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1996, served as the basis for the St. Sergius parish of the Russian Orthodox Church in Stockholm. Since the late 1990s, Russian parishes have been operating in Sweden in the cities of Gothenburg, Västerås, Umeå, Uppsala and others, and have been united in the Swedish Deanery of the Moscow Patriarchate. Since 2004, the Deanery has been headed by the Representative of the Moscow Patriarchate in Finland, Archpriest Viktor Lyutik.
Serbian Patriarchate
In the 1960s, due to mass labor emigration, more than 26,000 people from Serbia ended up in Sweden. In the 1970s, the British-Scandinavian Diocese of the Serbian Patriarchate was established in Sweden, uniting about two dozen Orthodox parishes in Sweden: in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Helsingborg, Halmstad, and others.
There is a male Serbian St. George Monastery in Olofström.
The number of the Serbian diaspora in 2014 was estimated at ~39 thousand people in Sweden (of which ~20 thousand in the Stockholm region).
Swedish deanery
In the 1980s, a Swedish deanery was established as part of the diocese, consisting of 4 parishes in which Swedish is the liturgical and colloquial language - the parish of St. Anna of Novgorod, the parish of St. Demetrius in Kristianstad and others.
In 2001, the Swedish-speaking Holy Trinity Monastery was founded by Archimandrite Dorotheus (Forsner) in the town of Bredared, near the city of Buros.
Romanian Patriarchate
The parishes of the Romanian Patriarchate in Sweden are part of the North European Diocese and are governed by Bishop Macarius (Draga) of Scandinavia.
In Stockholm, the Romanian community founded parishes in honor of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious (Vanadisplan district), the Assumption of the Mother of God (Bredäng district), Holy Trinity and John the Baptist (in the Solna district). There are Romanian parishes in the cities: Buros (in honor of the holy archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael), Gothenburg (in honor of the Holy Spirit), Gotland (in honor of St. Nicholas), Halmstad, Helsingborg, Hillersturp, Jönköping (in honor of the Intercession Mother of God), Kristianstad (in honor of Archdeacons Stephen and Lawrence), Linköping (in honor of George the Victorious), Malmö (in honor of the Holy Spirit), Örebro, Sölvesborg (in honor of the holy martyrs Athanasius, Basil), Umeå, Uppsala (in honor of the Three Saints), Westeros (in honor of Sts. Constantine and Helena) and Vekshö (in honor of the Exaltation of the Cross).
Macedonian Orthodox Church
The Macedonian Orthodox Church is represented in the Kingdom of Sweden by several parishes belonging to the European diocese and ruled by Metropolitan Pimen (Ilievsky).
In January 1973, in the city of Malmö, the Macedonians founded a parish in honor of St. Naum of Ohrid, and in 2006, the construction of a spacious church in honor of St. Naum was completed.
In 2012, the Macedonian parish had about 4 thousand members.
While preparing this material, I looked for information about the Swedish religious situation in official sources, since my private opinion is hardly completely objective. However, to my surprise, the figures found were not a discovery for me. After six years of living in Gothenburg, the second largest city in the kingdom of Sweden, I had a fairly adequate idea of the religious life of society.
So, here are the real numbers: the majority (about 80%) of registered believers (or 70% of the total population) formally belong to the Church of Sweden - the Lutheran church, separated from the state only in 2000. However, according to the results of the Eurobarometer survey from 2005, it is shown that Sweden is the third from the bottom of the list of countries in the EU in terms of the number of believers (after the Czech Republic and Estonia): only 23% of Swedes believe in God, 53% believe in some kind of spirit or life force, 23% do not believe in God or any spirit or life force. Only 2% of the population go to church regularly, Orthodox about 1% of the population. A significant part of them are Serbs, Greeks, Romanians, Russians, but there are also small communities of Orthodox Finns, Estonians, Georgians. An impressive number of Muslims live in Sweden.
Lutheranism (or Protestantism, as they say here) is the apotheosis of what defines Sweden and the character of the people here: moderation, restraint in everything - in feelings, expressions, design. Lutheran churches are not Catholic churches or Gothic cathedrals. There are a lot of churches in the city, old and not very old, but outwardly few can compare with the beauty of the most ordinary church in the Russian provinces. Immediately after my arrival here, I, who cannot read Swedish, mistook the churches for ... crematoria, as some of them had such a “non-church” appearance. In the area where I live, churches are literally everywhere, only sometimes it is difficult to distinguish them from residential buildings.
Have I been to Lutheran churches? Yes, and even found the one where I was happy to be - this is the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Every year at the end of December, around Christmas, services are held in it, and this church is perhaps the most beautiful in the city and most of all resembles an Orthodox one.
Singing Christmas carols, Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, December 2014 She arrived on a bicycle, and during the service, jeans were visible from under a white cassock. How, you ask, 80% of the population officially belongs to the church? The fact is that children are baptized even by those parents who do not believe in God and are not included in those same 23% of believers. I think this is a tribute to tradition, not fashion: the Swedish church is not free, each parishioner contributes more than 100 euros a year, this money is automatically deducted from the salary or allowance, for life, so few people baptize a child just like that, for the sake of the ceremony will. Perhaps those who declared their disbelief were simply ashamed to confess, but in fact they believe in God, and therefore they baptize their children.
My fridge is covered with memorabilia of babies, as you can see. At those christenings where I have been, a ceremony very similar to ours, Orthodox, was performed by pleasant elderly priests ...
But what about that small percentage of believers who go to church regularly? In my environment there is only one such family, and they do not belong to the Lutherans, but to that branch of the religion, which here is called Christian. These people do not drink alcohol, do not smoke, pray, their teenage daughter Johanna is an incredibly kind girl, this family heard about the problems that usually arise between parents and children at a difficult transitional age only from others.
"Are you Orthodox? This is wonderful!"
"Are you Orthodox? This is wonderful!" - this is exactly the reaction that one hundred percent of my friends and colleagues had when they found out what faith I was. The conversation usually turned when they accidentally saw a pectoral cross or when discussing plans for Christmas. At first, I attributed such tenderness to ordinary politeness, I was embarrassed, said “thank you” and turned the conversation to other topics, but it turned out that the Swedes really like Russian icons and priests, “a little angry, but you are all Russians, too, a little angry, a little smile." In general, due to the general irreligiousness of Swedish society, the idea of Orthodoxy is very superficial: someone heard about the revered Nicholas the Wonderworker, someone about Russian Christmas, which is celebrated in January, and not in December, like Catholics and Lutherans, who -someone knows that in Russia there was a different calendar.
I would like to say that the same positive reaction was to the fact that I am Russian, but I would have to lie. Unfortunately, political differences have taken their toll, so it is sad to write about the attitude of Russians.
To the credit of the Swedes, they do not look for the difference between Orthodoxy and other branches of the same church, Orthodox means not a Muslim, not a Mormon, which means ours. When I asked them to describe in one word what the distinguishing feature of the Russian Church is for them, the most common answer was “seriousness.” I must say that the Lutherans in this sense are great liberals (I will not touch on the topic of same-sex marriages), here's a case from life: my friend Lisa seriously urged the priest to change the text of the marriage vow "Do you swear to be with a servant of God ... until death do you part" to "Until you feel unhappy with him." Try to imagine that you will come to the Orthodox Church with such a request! Happened? I could not get. When I, a little shocked, asked Lisa why she decided to rewrite the text at all and how the priest reacted to this, Lisa replied: “The priest refused, I don’t understand why. He must have understood me, because he himself is married for the third time.
Once upon a time, while living in Russia, I took my Swedish colleagues, those who asked, to church. Of course, the purpose was more excursion than religious. The churches of Moscow made an impression, but more like museums, but from the existing churches I more than once took out crying adult men and women who went to look at beautiful strange icons and “priests in expensive clothes” (priests during worship), but fell into the atmosphere of the real Church, with the smell of candles, incense, the faces of saints, a special light. They experienced an incredible shock, some said that they had not cried for decades before, but here it seems that nothing hurts, nothing happened, but tears in the stream.
It seems to me that deep down, precisely because the Russian Orthodox Church has rites, canons, and that very seriousness, Orthodoxy inspires such respect.
On the main photo - an Orthodox church in Stockholm
In contact with
The fact that a Russian Orthodox church has been operating in Stockholm for almost four hundred years is hardly known to those numerous Russian tourists who get off the Princess Anastasia ferry in Frihamn harbor. The parish of St. Sergius of Radonezh was accepted into the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate 15 years ago, but as early as 1617, according to the Stolbovsky peace treaty, Russian merchants in Stockholm received the right to participate in Orthodox services. Since then, Orthodox services in Stockholm have not stopped. Priest Vitaly Babushin tells about the history of the Sergius parish and how it lives today.
The idea to create a church here belonged to Metropolitan Pitirim (Nechaev) of Volokolamsk and Yuryevsk. He then headed the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate. All this proposal was actively supported. As the first rector of the parish, Priest Alexander Piskunov, told me, at that moment Vladyka did not have a meter at hand to measure this room. Then Vladyka Pitirim removed the belt from his cassock and took measurements, estimating what the altar, throne, altar and iconostasis should be like. After some time, an iconostasis was made in the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, which was installed here, in the temple.
The rectors of our church were, as I mentioned, Priest Alexander Piskunov, and after his retirement, Archpriest Vladimir Alexandrov, who currently continues his ministry in Moscow. Through the efforts of my predecessors, not only in Stockholm, but also in other cities of Sweden, groups of Orthodox believers have appeared and continue to appear, and they unite not only Russians or Russian speakers, but also Swedes, which is especially pleasant. Currently, seven parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate are registered in the kingdom. In one of them, in Stockholm, I am the pastor, and in the other three, I am the ministering priest. The north of Sweden is also served by the priest of the Moscow Patriarchate, rector of the parish of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Umeå, Mikhail Salgrin.
The room in which the temple is located is part of the auxiliary buildings of the Lutheran church of Mary Magdalene. How did it happen that the Swedish Church shared this small building with the Orthodox?
The fact is that among the parishioners there was a relative of the then rector of the Lutheran parish of Mary Magdalene. Thanks to this, the premises were given to us by the Church of Mary Magdalene for twenty-five years of free rent. But it is known that the parish of St. Sergius was forced to invest a rather large amount in the reconstruction of the premises for worship. Thus, for about thirteen years, Divine Liturgy has been celebrated regularly in our parish. The parish has grown very much: as Fr. Alexander, on the first Pascha, everyone who participated in the festive Liturgy fit at the break of the fast at a small coffee table. And now for Christmas and Easter we rent large Protestant churches. We have an icon-painting school, a children's school, we have our own wonderful choir.
Do Swedes - both believing Protestants and ordinary citizens - know that there are Orthodox churches in Stockholm?
Somehow, the late rector of the Transfiguration Church, which is under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, father Matthias Nurstrem, gathered the Swedes living next to the temple. The Transfiguration Church is a brownie, it is located in the well of a residential building. More than half of those people whose windows overlooked the temple did not know that there was an Orthodox parish next to them.
We do not convene our Swedish neighbors - although a residential building rises directly above us. I think they also know little about our church, although, of course, they see our religious processions.
In your parish, I happened to observe Swedes who converted to Orthodoxy. What is the path of an ordinary Swede to Orthodoxy?
The classic path to Orthodoxy for a Swede is through Catholicism. If a Swede begins to think seriously, he moves from Lutheranism to Catholicism; if he continues to think further, then he goes over to Orthodoxy. I know several Swedes who came to Orthodoxy in this way.
You are probably already familiar with Swedish stereotypes about Russians. Are there any stereotypes about Orthodoxy? A researcher from Sweden, Per Arne Budin, outlined a clear positive image of "Holy Russia", other Swedish authors indicate their attitude towards Russia with the phrase "Russians are coming!" What will an ordinary Swede say if he is asked if he knows anything about Orthodoxy?
Swedish stereotypes about Russians are well known. The attitude towards Russia here is completely different. I was told the following episode: when Fr. Alexander Piskunov accidentally called our former regent and treasurer, the Swede Pavel Nurdgren Pohl (that was his name before Baptism), Vladyka Pitirim answered: “Father Alexander! Pavlusha, Pavlusha! What Paul, he's Russian!
There are amazingly Orthodox Swedes. Our Pavel Nurdgren, as regent, compiled his own collections of Orthodox hymns for the entire yearly circle of services. Nurdgren is now retired - he has ceased to be treasurer and regent, but regularly participates in worship.
The range of attitudes towards Russia here is very wide: from such Swedes, who have practically become Russian, to those who still remember the hostilities with Russia and do not reject the possibility of a new conflict.
As a rule, local newspapers are sure to note when some crimes are committed by Russians. At the same time, crimes committed by members of other minorities are not reported.
In addition to what has been said, many Swedish newspapers allow themselves open mockery of Christianity. But for me personally, the fact that, for example, yesterday's edition of the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter published an article about Palekh, written with understanding, warmth and compassion, is much more dear to me.
Do you think it is necessary for a Swede who converted to Orthodoxy to learn Russian? Is the amount of information in Swedish sufficient for a full-fledged spiritual life of an Orthodox Christian?
At first, I thought that the Swedish language should be used in worship in proportion to how large the number of Swedes present at the service. It turned out that previous abbots also faced this dilemma. They tried to partially use Swedish in worship. But among parishioners, all this caused an ambiguous reaction. Some said: this is the Russian church, we come here, so to speak, in order to stay a little in Russia; and suddenly we hear Swedish, which we are tired of, etc.
This question is open - it is being discussed. Some parishioners welcome him, others do not. As you understand, in Russia it happens that not only in one city, but also on the same street, there are several different churches with different traditions and different durations of services, with different views of priests on certain theological, philosophical, political and national issues. A person can choose, but here everyone has to go to one parish - well, there is also the Church of the Transfiguration, but it is in a different jurisdiction ... It is especially difficult in this situation for the clergy and the choir, because everyone needs to be satisfied and all spiritual needs are satisfied but everyone's needs are very different. Therefore, the issue of using the Swedish language stumbles upon this pitfall.
Does a Swede who goes to church need to learn Russian? Of course, it is necessary: there are still many books that need to be translated into Swedish. Now the real work of translating liturgical texts into Swedish is being carried out by Archimandrite Dorotheos (he is a Swede) from the Holy Trinity Monastery in the city of Buros, in southwestern Sweden. He has already translated a lot into Swedish, including from Church Slavonic. Translations are underway, but I would like many more people to join this process.
- Is there any discrimination against Orthodox children in the Swedish school?
The schools here have a rather international environment. There is no discrimination as such, but there is no special attention to religious issues. Acquaintance with world religions takes place as part of the teaching of social sciences, and in practice there are many children from Muslim families for whom meat varieties are specially marked in school canteens: the problem of “halal - not halal” is perhaps the only religious problem that is already well known to the Swedes.
Please tell us about the icon-painting school operating at the temple. When was it created? How many people study here, what disciplines do parishioners study here?
The idea of creating an icon-painting school belongs to Father Alexander Piskunov. According to him, when he and his mother arrived in Sweden, they discovered that almost every Catholic and Lutheran church had its own art or even icon painting circle. A little later, they saw the horror that passes for the freedom of creativity. When exhibitions of the “works” of such circles are held in Lutheran churches, one can, of course, treat all this with humility, but sometimes these works are on the same level as blasphemy. I myself am a witness. All these courses and circles are either hidden or openly commercial. Therefore, in order to show Sweden a real icon of the Byzantine and Russian tradition, Father Alexander decided to create an icon painting school in the parish and make it free.
The plans of the icon-painting school included theoretical classes, which were to be held constantly, and master classes at the end of each semester, in which it was planned to involve the best icon painters in Russia.
The uniqueness of our school lies in the unlimited period of study, and also in the fact that those who do not want to take exams, for example, the elderly, can study here.
Everything that was once in the plans, now lives and makes us very happy. We hope that the Sergius parish in the near future will be able to outgrow its more than modest shelter in the back room of the Swedish Protestant Church into a real church of the Moscow Patriarchate here, in the capital of the Swedish kingdom.
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The Orthodox Cathedral of St. George is one of the most visited sights in the capital of Sweden. The temple is located in the center of Stockholm, at the address: Birger Jarlsgatan street, 92.
Orthodoxy in Sweden
Sweden is a Catholic country, but Orthodoxy occupies a special place here. The history of this religion in Sweden has deep roots. In Stockholm, back in the 17th century, Russians from Muscovy received permission to build a church. This religious building became the first Orthodox church in Western Europe. The church was located on the territory of the town hall. Now in its place is the city museum. In the basement of this building, an inscription made in Russian has been preserved.
Expansion of contacts and influence on Orthodoxy in Sweden
The impetus for the development of contacts with Sweden was trade. In 1700-1721, Tsar Peter actively "cut through" a window to Europe and especially to Sweden.
During World War II, many Orthodox from Poland and the Baltics came to Sweden, and later Greeks, Yugoslavs and Bulgarians. Already in our time, in the 1990s, a new wave of emigration took place. Since then, thousands of Orthodox have lived in Sweden, and therefore in Sweden, and in Stockholm itself, there are many Orthodox churches.
St. George's Orthodox Cathedral
In St. George's Church there are many icons and frescoes associated with the name of this saint. The parents of the Great Martyr George were rich people. The birthplace of a religious figure is the city of Beirut. George was a warrior. He was distinguished by courage, strength, beauty and became close to the emperor Diocletian.
The emperor wanted to return paganism and persecuted Christians. George began to intercede for them and accuse the emperor of cruelty. Then Diocletian persecuted George himself. He was put in jail and brutally tortured. He bravely endured suffering. By order of Emperor George, they were executed. The people gave the Great Martyr the name "Victorious" for the spiritual victory over the enemies of Christianity. The relics of the saint are kept in Palestine, in the city of Lida.
On many icons, George sits on a white horse and strikes a snake. This icon is an image of a legend about a snake that killed girls and boys. When the serpent wanted to kill the ruler's daughter, a young man appeared on a white horse, saved the girl and killed the enemy. It was George the Victorious.
Symbol of courage
In Stockholm, residents consider George the patron saint of the city. A monument was erected to him, which is a sculptural group - George on horseback kills a dragon. The rescued princess knelt beside her. The original in 1489 was made of expensive wood and gilded. This is the oldest wooden sculpture in Europe. It is kept in the church of St. Nicholas.
In 1912, a bronze statue was placed in the center of the city, a complete copy of the wooden one. It is installed on the Town Hall. The monument has a hidden meaning - St. George is perceived as a symbol of the courage of the Swedes, the dragon - the enemy's malice, the princess - this is Sweden in need of protection.
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