The Equmeniakyrkan (Uniting Church of Sweden) has become skilled at talking about how new congregations are planted, but significantly less attention is given to those congregations that are struggling. In a pointed editorial, Sändaren argues that this risks making both endings poorer and future possibilities fewer. The piece calls for the denomination to develop a more honest and constructive conversation about what happens when a congregation can no longer sustain itself in its current form.
Writing in response to a column by church leader Niklas Piensoho — who observed that "what stops being renewed begins to die" — the editorial notes that the same principle applies to structures, buildings, and organisations, not only to spiritual renewal. The Equmeniakyrkan speaks warmly of renewal and church planting, but a question is rarely asked in the same breath: what happens to the congregations that are struggling? Those with a large building, an ageing membership, and finances that no longer hold together — those who know something needs to change but do not know what, or do not receive help to find out.
The editorial suggests that the answer need not always be closure. Sometimes it can be about reorientation, sometimes about cooperation, sometimes about leaving a building while continuing as a congregation. And sometimes an ending can become the beginning of something new. The piece highlights the example of Ekenbergskyrkan in Solna, a congregation that is handing over its church building and continuing in a new form — a model that may point the way for others facing similar decisions across Sweden's free church landscape.
(Originally published in Swedish. Summary translated by CC / Connexion.)
Source: Equmeniakyrkan / Sändaren — sandaren.se
