Nominating Group

Nominating Group

Nominating groups (in Swedish: Nomineringsgrupper) is the name given to political parties and other outfits that take part in the elections to the various governing bodies of the Church of Sweden.

The Church of Sweden adopted, at the time that it was still a state church, an administrative structure largely modelled after the state. Direct elections are held to national (Kyrkomötet), Diocese (Stift), Community (Samfällighet) and Parish (Församling) assemblies. The electoral system is the same as used in the parliamentary or municipal elections. In some cases the nationwide political parties take part in the church elections, In other cases individual members of political parties form separate associations to launch candidatures in the church elections. In general terms one can say that the former category consist of parties with historical base in the church whereas the latter consist of political tendencies that have historically been more alien to it, either as a result of secularism (Left and Greens) or being based in the so-called Free Churches (Liberals and Christian Democrats). A growing phenomena are various 'non-partisan' groups putting up candidatures.