606 Petander
Chapter 74 Theosophically Inspired Movements in Sweden
Einar Petander
The Liberal Catholic Church
The origins of the Liberal Catholic Church go back to the Old Catholic Church in Utrecht, the Netherlands, a Catholic denomination that has been independ- ent from Rome since 1724. In the early 1910s, priests in England with an interest in Theosophy attempted to create an ecclesiastical community that was open also to Theosophists. At first, they found a congenial environment in one of the branches of the Old Catholic Church in England, but once this was no longer possible, a separate church was created. The birth of the new denomination was marked by the ordination as bishop of the Theosophically-inclined priest James I. Wedgwood (1883–1951) in January 1916. Wedgwood embarked on a journey around the world in order to spread and establish the new church. His first stop was Australia, where he met his friend Charles W. Leadbeater (1847–1934), who belonged to the top echelon of the Theosophical Society (Adyar). Wedgwood and Leadbeater cooperated in com- posing the liturgy of the Church; this liturgy was officially adopted at a synod held in England on 6 September 1918, at which occasion the name of the church was also established. The Church soon established new branches around the world, not least because of the global presence of the Theosophical Society. The Liberal Catholic Church has a declaration of principles and a summary of doctrines, both of which show a Theosophical influence, e.g., the concepts of reincarna- tion and karma. The Church is liberal in the sense that members are not bound by such specific doctrines, but are granted a considerable liberty to interpret the declaration of principles and summary of doctrines, as well as the Bible, the traditions of the Church, the creeds, and the liturgy. On the other hand, the Church strictly observes the ritual details of the liturgy. The rationale for this strict observance is the Church’s view of its rites, which are considered to transmit resources of divine power – a position that bishop Leadbeater formu- lated in the early 1920s. The Liberal Catholic Church was officially established in Sweden in 1925, but church services following a simplified form of Church liturgy had already been held in the first years of the 1920s. The first service of the newly
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2016 | doi 10.1163/9789004325968_076 Theosophically Inspired Movements in Sweden 607 established church was held in April 1925 in a Theosophical commune on Barnhusgatan in Stockholm, with the Dutch Liberal Catholic bishop Adriaan Mazel presiding. Twenty-two individuals were baptised and confirmed, and two declared their interest in joining the clergy. These two – captain Sven Selander and economist Sigfrid Fjellander (1899–1974) – entered priesthood at a ceremony in the Netherlands on 28 August of the same year. The first mass open to the public was a midnight service held on Christmas 1925 in the grand hall of the Theosophical Society building on Östermalmsgatan in Stockholm. These premises continued to be used for Liberal Catholic Church masses until 1937, when the Church moved to a location of its own on Tegnérgatan 13 in central Stockholm. In 1970 a church building on Stora Essingen (an island in a suburb of Stockholm), the Church of St. Michael, was acquired. A few years after the start in Stockholm a congregation was also formed in Gothenburg. For the first two decades of its presence in the Nordic countries, the Liberal Catholic Church in Scandinavia was organised directly under the presiding bishop of the world-wide Church. In 1946, the Scandinavian congregations were reorganised in a separate regional body, with bishop Otto Viking as regional bishop. Bishop Sigfrid Fjellander (1899–1974) assumed this post in 1967 and held it until 1974. In 1978 the Scandinavian regional Church was fur- ther divided into three wards: Sweden, Finland, and a combined ward for Denmark, Norway and Iceland. The three wards became fully independent regions in 1981, and have since then been presided over by their respective regional bishops. In 2004, the Liberal Catholic Church split over the question how various views on the accession of women to the clergy should be handled. Most con- gregations wished to accept women clergy, and joined the branch of the international Liberal Catholic Church that had already introduced this new order. The congregation in Gothenburg, which constitutes the largest Swedish Liberal Catholic Church body, remained within the international branch that retained the older order with an exclusively male clergy. In an international perspective, this branch constitutes the majority of the Liberal Catholic Church. Both branches continue to use the name Liberal Catholic Church in various international contexts, but identify themselves in Swedish with differ- ent names. The Gothenburg branch calls itself Fria Universella Kyrkan i Sverige (The Free Universal Church in Sweden) and has 150 members in Gothenburg. The other branch, which comprises the majority of Swedish members of the Liberal Catholic Church, has kept the original name. It has congregations in Uppsala, Västerås, and Stockholm which together comprise 400 members. The Liberal Catholic Church in Sweden publishes the journal Communio – Liberal katolsk kyrkotidning (four issues per year).