Sweden


Baptists Form Joint Church Body with Methodist and Covenant Denominations


T


he Baptist Union of Sweden (BUS) created a new church in collaboration with two other church bodies, forming a community of 70,000 members and approximately 900


congregations, the second largest Christian denomination in the Scandinavian country after the Lutheran Church of Sweden. The decision was formalized at a gathering in Sweden in May of this year after the three entities, the BUS, the Evangelical- Methodist Church and the Mission Covenant Church, voted in June 2011 to create what is known as the Joint Future Church (JFC).


The new entity retains membership in a number of international ecumenical


organizations, including the World Council of


Churches; and confessional bodies, including the Baptist World Alliance, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the World Methodist Council, and the International Federation of Free Evangelical Churches. The BUS will continue as a legal entity for the next 12 to 24 months during which time transitional arrangements will be worked out, but it effectively ceases to function as an autonomous body.


The JFC’s highest decision making body is the Church Conference, made up of elected delegates from JFC congregations that will meet annually. The Church Board is the highest decision making body in between Church Conferences and consists of a chair person and 10-14 members. The board is charged with carrying out the decisions of the Church Conference, and is responsible for recruiting and training persons for the ordained and other ministries and establishing a register of JFC congregations, among other duties. Three Baptists were elected into key positions, Soren Carlsvaard, outgoing BUS president


and


vice president of the new entity, Ann-Sofie Lasell, board chair, and Christer Daelander, coordinator for Church and Society.


In an address at the June 2011 meeting in Stockholm, BWA


General Secretary Neville Callam urged the gathering to give special consideration to the kind of unity that the three church bodies were contemplating. He said that the nature of church unity “is a question that has occupied the mind of many Christians and churches for many years” and indicated “that there is no one vision of the unity of the church that is shared by all Christians.” Callam reminded delegates that “there is a certain provisionality


about existing church structures generally, including those which emerge out of church union schemes.” He encouraged them “to resist the urge to build up fortresses...and church structures that now compete with other existing ecclesial structures and so exacerbate the situation of church disunity.” The BWA leader, even while pointing out the risks associated with church unity ventures, nevertheless described Christian disunity as a scandal. The church, he said, “has a calling to bear witness to the unity given to her as a gift” and he prayed that “God will bless your life and mission together.” European


Baptist Federation (EBF) General Secretary


Anthony Peck declared his confidence that “the identity that the Baptists will bring to the new church will remain a strong and important part of it.” He reported that the EBF had “agreed to let the JFC settle into its new life” and that the EBF will hold its 2014 Executive Committee meeting in Sweden. This, he said, “will be an opportunity for us to discuss with the church leadership the best way for the JFC to relate to the EBF.” More than 2,000 persons attended the gathering in Stockholm


including Baptists from Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Lithuania, Estonia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


From left: Methodist Pastor Lasse Svensson, new Joint Future Church president; EBF General Secretary Anthony Peck, Sofia Camneri and Olle Alkholm from the Mission Church, who were elected associate church leaders


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