Swedish Union of Churches Conference
Organised in1901; reorganised in 1969, 1982, and in 2009)
Churches: 32
Address: Olof Palmes gata 25, SE-111 22 Stockholm, Sweden
Mailing: P.O. Box 536, SE-101 30 Stockholm, Sweden
Website: www.adventist.se
Email: [email protected]
The history of church in Sweden
Swedish Adventism was established on 26 August 1880, when the first church was organised in Grythyttan, Vastmanland, with forty-seven church members, twenty-six of whom had been Baptists. A month later, J. G. Matteson reported about a Sabbath school class of thirty-six (Review and Herald, 19 August 188), eight of which had been baptised. However, former Baptists were not required to be re-baptised.
The first tract society in Sweden was set up at the same time. The human agent behind this early success was a Swede, J. P. Rosquist, a former shoemaker’s apprentice who was ordained in Christiana (Oslo) in April 1880.
The ground in this part of Sweden was prepared in several ways. In 1842 there were a number of ‘criers’ (ropare) proclaiming the Second Coming, and when the adults were silenced, the children preachers took their place.
In 1858, P. Palmblad unsuccessfully urged Battle Creek to produce literature in Swedish. James Sawyer, an American school teacher, tried again, and in 1874 the Svensk Advent Harold (Swedish Advent Herald) was started, and copies were sent to friends and relatives in the homeland. The reading of such publications resulted in no fewer than twenty-four Sabbath keepers in Grythyttan before Rosquist arrived there.
Matteson met interested Swedes in Oslo, and later stated that there were reportedly groups of Sabbath keepers in central Sweden.