The Baptist Union of Sweden (Svenska Baptistsamfundet) is the oldest of several Baptist bodies in Sweden.
The first known Baptist church in Sweden was organized on September 21, 1848 in Vallersvik, where a group of people committed the first known baptism in Sweden. At the time this was a crime, and the new movement's leader F O Nilsson was deported. Others were fined or jailed. A few years later, the Swedish laws changed, and religious groups other than the official state church were allowed to work.
A general conference was formed in 1857 and the conference formed the Swedish Baptist Union in 1889. In 1934 the Swedish Baptist Union attained its peak, with 68 000 members. In 2006 it reported a total of 17 000 members in 223 parishes.
The Union has suffered two divisions, the first leading to the formation of the Free Baptist Union (Fribaptistsamfundet) in 1872, and the second to the Örebro Mission (Örebromissionen) (started in 1892, but separated from the Union in 1936).
The Baptist Union of Sweden is a member of the Swedish Free Church Council, the European Baptist Federation, and the Baptist World Alliance. It was the first Swedish church to appoint a woman as head of the assembly. It is led by Ms Karin Wiborn (2007).
Today (2008) 220 parishes are affiliated to the Baptist Union of Sweden, consisting of more than 17000 members. Many parishes are also connected to other church communions. There are ongoing discussions on a closer relationship with Mission Covenant Church of Sweden (Svenska Missionskyrkan) and Methodist Church of Sweden (Metodistkyrkan i Sverige). Summer 2008 the three church communions will have a joint annual conference, where a further step towards closer relationship are expected.
Famous quotes containing the words baptist and/or union:
“You should approach Joyce’s Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“Maybe we were the blind mechanics of disaster, but you don’t pin the guilt on the scientists that easily. You might as well pin it on M motherhood.... Every man who ever worked on this thing told you what would happen. The scientists signed petition after petition, but nobody listened. There was a choice. It was build the bombs and use them, or risk that the United States and the Soviet Union and the rest of us would find some way to go on living.”
—John Paxton (1911–1985)