Conservative Laestadianism

Last updated
Summer services at Perho, Finland in 2005 Perhon suviseurat.JPG
Summer services at Perho, Finland in 2005
SUVISEURATELLTA 2009.jpg
Laestadius preaching in Lapland. Francois-Auguste Biard - Le Pasteur Laestadius instruisant les Lapons.jpg
Laestadius preaching in Lapland.
In the right altar piece in Jukkasjarvi church, Laestadius kneeling before Sami woman Maria, who served as his teacher. Laestadius Hjorth2.jpg
In the right altar piece in Jukkasjärvi church, Laestadius kneeling before Sami woman Maria, who served as his teacher.
A speaker and older listeners at Summer Services in Perho, Finland 2005 Seurat suviseuroissa.jpg
A speaker and older listeners at Summer Services in Perho, Finland 2005
The Christian Folk High School of Jamsa belongs to the conservative Laestadian movement in Finland. Jamsan opisto.jpg
The Christian Folk High School of Jämsä belongs to the conservative Laestadian movement in Finland.

Conservative Laestadianism is the largest branch of the Lutheran revival movement Laestadianism. It has spread to 16 countries. As of 2012 there were about 115,000 Conservative Laestadians, most of them in Finland, the United States, Norway, and Sweden. [1] [2] The movement and this denomination attribute their teachings to the Bible and the Lutheran Book of Concord .

Contents

History

Laestadianism received its name from Pastor Lars Levi Laestadius. The origin of the denomination's name from the Finnish word for 'conservative' (vanhoillis-) is unknown. In North and South America as well as in Africa this denomination is known as the Laestadian Lutheran Movement.

The movement began in Swedish Lapland. Laestadius met a Sami woman named Milla Clementsdotter of Föllinge, during an 1844 inspection tour of Åsele. Clementsdotter recited various biblical teachings to Laestadius. This was an important meeting for Laestadius because afterwards he felt he understood the secret of living faith. He believed that he received the forgiveness for his sins and saw the way that led to the eternal life. His sermons underwent a marked transformation, and the movement began to spread from Sweden to Finland and Norway.

Divisions

At the beginning of the 20th century, Laestadianism broke into three branches: The Firstborn Laestadianism, Reawakening, and Conservative Laestadianism. After this major schism, several other groups have also departed from Conservative Laestadianism. It nevertheless remains the largest branch of Laestadianism.

Dissociation and exclusivity

Conservative Laestadianism's leadership rigidly adheres to the teaching that all other Christian groups, including other Laestadian sub-groups, even those doctrinally identical to Conservative Laestadians, are heretical and have no place in the Kingdom of Heaven. [3]

Doctrine

The central teaching of Conservative Laestadianism, like the movement as a whole, is the declaration of forgiveness of sins whereby members proclaim to one another, "You can believe all sins forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood," or similar words. Upon receiving this rite, a believer is said to receive the Holy Spirit allowing him or her to be saved from eternal damnation on the basis that God forgets all sins when they have been forgiven. This rite is also called the power of the "keys of the kingdom."

Conservative Laestadians believe that God has given the gift of faith to every child born in the world, although in their world view only Conservative Laestadians actually accept the gift.

Conservative Laestadians often have large families due to their belief that contraception is a sin. They believe that God is the lord of birth and death. They do not have a television at home because of the showing of what is viewed as offensive and sinful programing. They do not drink alcohol or listen to pop music. Recently, however, the Internet is blurring the line between television and no television as many watch television programming on the Internet.[ citation needed ]

Conservative Laestadians have about 780 preachers and 120 priests. [4] LLC has about 68 preachers. [5] All preachers among Conservative Laestadianism are men.

Distribution

Conservative Laestadianism in the Americas C Laestadianism America.png
Conservative Laestadianism in the Americas
Conservative Laestadianism in Europe C Laestadianism Europe.png
Conservative Laestadianism in Europe
Conservative Laestadianism in Africa Conservative Laestadianism in Africa 2024.png
Conservative Laestadianism in Africa

Conservative Laestadianism is located mainly in northern Europe and North America. Small congregations can be found in Africa, southern Europe and South America. There are about 115,000 Conservative Laestadians, most of them in Finland, the United States and Sweden. [1] [2] Most (80,000-150,000) are in Finland. [8] Conservative Laestadians organize big summer services every year. It is the biggest religious event in Nordic countries. About 70,000 guests come from all over the world. [9] Conservative Laestadianism does mission work in 16 countries: Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Canada, Kenya, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Togo and the United States. [7] [10]

Congregations in North America are located in the following provinces and states:

Canada: Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Saskatchewan. [11]

United States: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. [11]

Child sex abuse scandal

In 2011, the Finnish news media reported widespread child sexual abuse and coverup within Finnish Conservative Laestadianism occurring over at least 30 years that eventually led to many criminal cases including against several Laestadian lay preachers, resulting in lengthy prison terms. Child welfare worker Johanna Hurtig, Ph.D., herself a Conservative Laestadian, allegedly uncovered the abuse in the course of her research on sex abuse in the Finnish Lutheran church as a whole. After she was ridiculed and dismissed by the Finnish Conservative Laestadian leadership, Hurtig's findings were reported to the media, leading to wide scrutiny of the sect by the Finnish public. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

Criticism of claims

An article by Jani Kaaro from July 2015 entitled "Laestadians – A Modern Witchhunt" in the Finnish publication Rapport, questions the methods used to build the cases against the church leaders by the Finnish criminal justice system, in particular alleging the possible planting of the false ideas in children's minds. [18]

Associations

Publications

Conservative Laestadians have five newspapers, three in Finland and two in North America. Those newspapers are translated into eight languages. The LLC publishes The Voice of Zion and The Shepherd's Voice in English, Finnish, French and Spanish. The SRK in Finland publishes Päivämies , Siionin Lähetyslehti and Lasten polku (previously Siionin Kevät ) in Estonian, Finnish, English, German, Russian and Swedish. The hymnal, Songs and Hymns of Zion , has been translated into seven languages. There is also a book which describes Conservative Laestadian doctrine, The Treasure Hidden in a Field. However, the Bible is their most important book.

Literature

See also

Sources

Related Research Articles

Laestadianism, also known as Laestadian Lutheranism and Apostolic Lutheranism, is a pietistic Lutheran revival movement started in Sápmi in the middle of the 19th century. Named after Swedish Lutheran state church administrator and temperance movement leader Lars Levi Laestadius, it is the biggest pietistic revivalist movement in the Nordic countries. It has members mainly in Finland, Northern America, Norway, Russia, and Sweden. There are also smaller congregations in Africa, South America, and Central Europe. In addition Laestadian Lutherans have missionaries in 23 countries. The number of Laestadians worldwide is estimated to be between 144,000 and 219,000.

Pietism, also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christian life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laestadian Lutheran Church</span> Religious Christian movement

The Laestadian Lutheran Church (LLC) is a religious Christian movement, which claims its teachings are based on the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions. From June 9, 1973, the organisation was named the Association of American Laestadian Congregations (AALC), before the association changed its name in 1994 in order better to convey its spiritual heritage. As of 2016, the Laestadian Lutheran Church has 33 member congregations in the United States and Canada, with highest concentrations of members in Minnesota, Washington, Arizona, Michigan in the United States and in Saskatchewan, Canada; the congregations are served by about 90 ministers, nearly all of them lay preachers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lars Levi Laestadius</span> Swedish Lutheran pastor (1800–1861)

Lars Levi Laestadius was a Swedish Sami writer, ecologist, mythologist, and ethnographer as well as a pastor and administrator of the Swedish state Lutheran church in Lapland who founded the Laestadian pietist revival movement to help his largely Sami congregations, who were being ravaged by alcoholism. Laestadius himself became a teetotaller in the 1840s, when he began successfully talking his Sami parishioners out of alcoholism. Laestadius was also a noted botanist and an author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pajala</span> Place in Norrbotten

Pajala is a locality and the seat of Pajala Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden, with 1,958 inhabitants in 2010. It is located in Swedish Lapland.

The Laestadian church arrived in North America with Nordic immigrants in the latter half of the 19th century, many of whom came to work in the copper mines of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Some of these new immigrants found themselves in conflict with older, established immigrants from the same countries, being generally poorer and less established, and hewing to the new, fundamentalist teachings of Lars Levi Laestadius, a Swedish-Sami preacher and botanist born in Arjeplog, Sweden. Laestadian congregations separate from the extant Scandinavian Lutheran churches were formed in Cokato, Minnesota, in 1872 and in Calumet, Michigan, in 1873.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apostolic Lutheran Church of America</span>

The Apostolic Lutheran Church of America (ALCA) is a Laestadian Lutheran church denomination established by Finnish American and Norwegian immigrants in the 1800s. They came mainly from northern Finland and northern Norway where they had been members of the state churches. Most or all members had ties from their home countries to the Laestadian revival movement named after Swedish state church administrator and pastor Lars Levi Laestadius of Pajala, Sweden. Eventually, there were too many arguments between this denomination and the other American Laestadians, and some of the followers of Laestadius were excluded from the sacrament of holy communion. Under the lead of Salomon Korteniemi, the excluded members formed a congregation of their own in December 1872, under the name the Salomon Korteniemi Lutheran Society. In 1879 this name was changed to the Finnish Apostolic Lutheran Congregation. As other congregations of Finns in Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and Oregon were organized on the same basis, they came into fellowship with this body under the name the Finnish Apostolic Lutheran Church, or, as it is usually called, the Apostolic Lutheran Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Summer services</span>

Summer services is the annual meeting of the Finnish Lutheran movement known as Conservative Laestadians. In addition to the primary Finnish gathering, similar meetings are arranged in North America, Sweden and Russia.

The Central Association of the Finnish Associations of Peace is a Conservative Laestadian organization in Finland. It is part of Conservative Laestadianism and its sister organization in North America is Laestadian Lutheran Church. SRK has 179 Associations of Peace in Finland and eight in Russia. It has also sister organizations in Sweden and Estonia. It does mission work in 18 countries.

The Estonian Lutheran Association of Peace is a conservative laestadians organization in Estonia. It has one Association of Peace in Tartu. It does mission work in Tallinn, Tartu and Southeast Estonia. It has sister organizations in Finland, Sweden and North America.

An Association of Peace is an official grouping of conservative Laestadians. In Europe there are 214 Associations of Peace: 179 in Finland, eight in Russia, five in Sweden, one in Norway and one in Estonia. There are also three central organizations: SRK in Finland, SFC in Sweden and Estonian Lutheran Association of Peace in Estonia. The Laestadian Lutheran Church does mission work worldwide in collaboration with Association of Peace organizations.

Firstborn Laestadians are a subgroup within the Laestadian Lutheran revival movement. The Firstborn are known for their traditionalism and their conservative pietistic ideals, and they seek to avoid "worldly pleasures". The name "Firstborn" derives from the Bible's Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb. 12:23, which mentions "the church of the firstborn".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korpela movement</span> 1930s religious movement in Northern Sweden

The Korpela movement, or Siikavaara sect, was a religious sect started by Laestadian preacher Toivo Korpela in Sweden during the 1920s. It saw its decline later during the next decade as its practices involved heavy drinking and unconventional sexual activities toward the end of its existence, which subsequently led to the conviction of 60 of its followers.

Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that identifies primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 1517. Lutheranism subsequently became the state religion of many parts of Northern Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Apostolic Lutheran Church</span> Firstborn Laestadian church

The Old Apostolic Lutheran Church of America (OALC) is a Firstborn Laestadian church in North America. Firstborn Laestadians are a subgroup within Laestadianism. The Old Apostolic Lutheran Church originated in the 1890s. In the Nordic Firstborn Laestadian revival, the movement works within the official Church of Sweden, which is also called the "Lutheran Folk Church". The Church of Sweden has for a long time recognized the Laestadian movement and has allowed them to hold their own services in the state churches, both before and after the separation of church and state. Even in America it still has a relationship with the Church of Sweden.

Oskari Heikki Jussila was a Conservative Laestadian provost, vicar for multiple parishes, and the area provost of the Tornio area in 1938–1955. He also worked as editor for the religious newspapers Siionin lähetyslehti and Zions missionstidning in 1919–1945, as well as a member of parliament with the National Coalition Party in 1922–1929 and 1930–1933. Jussila's father was Heikki Jussila (1863-1955), a Conservative Laestadian lay preacher and Volksschule teacher.

Milla Clementsdotter (also known as, Milla Clemensdotter, Maria of Lappland was a Swedish Southern Sámi woman who is remembered for guiding Lars Levi Laestadius in questions of Christian faith. She belonged to a revival movement marked by Pietistic and Moravian influences, a member of a group known as "Readers", a background shared by Laestadius' mother.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laestadius family</span>

The Laestadius family is a Swedish family originally from Ångermanland, and mostly noted for its member Lars Levi Laestadius, the founder of the pietistic Lutheran revival movement, Laestadianism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Läsare</span> Pietistic movement in Sweden and Finland

Läsare or the Reader movement was a Swedish Pietistic Christian revival movement of people who stressed the importance of reading, that is, reading the Bible and other Christian literature. It was influenced by both the Herrnhuters and the Methodists and has been described by scholar George M. Stephenson as a "second religious reformation in Sweden".

Pehr Brandell, also known as Per, Petrus, and Petter, was a Swedish Lutheran priest known for his role in the 19th-century revivalist movement in Norrland.

References

  1. 1 2 Talonen 2001. s. 25
  2. 1 2 Talonen 2012. Lecture (in finnish) in Laestadius-seminar in Oulu 5. october 2012. Virtuaalikirkko has videos from seminar, and they are archived in Internet: "VIRTUAALIKIRKKO - Virtuaalikirkon arkisto". Archived from the original on 2014-08-05. Retrieved 2012-10-17.
  3. "An Examination of the Pearl". 2012. p. 84 et seq. Retrieved November 22, 2014.
  4. Päivämies, 20.12.2006, Puhujien kokous, Page 10
  5. LLC: Who We Are Archived 2007-02-06 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 2007-2-20
  6. LLC Member Churches Archived 2007-02-06 at the Wayback Machine and Lestadiolaisuus Ecuadorissa Retrieved on 2007-2-20
  7. 1 2 3 SRK: Seurat ulkomailla Archived 2006-03-13 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 2007-2-20
  8. Helsingin sanomien Kuukausiliite Elokuu 2006, Article; Ja täyttäkää maa, Page 52
  9. SRK:n suviseurat Archived 2007-01-05 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 2007-2-20
  10. Lestadiolaisuus Ecuadorissa Retrieved on 2007-2-20
  11. 1 2 LLC Member Churches Archived 2007-02-06 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 2007-2-20
  12. Sampsa Saikkonen; Paula Häkämies (January 5, 2014). "Mapping Digital Media:Finland" (Report). Open Society Foundations. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  13. "Shedding light on child abuse among the Laestadians". April 17, 2011.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  14. "Conservative Laestadians admit serious mistakes in dealing with child abuse issue – trust is gone in SRK". April 11, 2011. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  15. "Finnish Christian sect reveals pedophilia cases". TheGuardian.com . April 7, 2011. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  16. Jussi Rosendahl (April 13, 2011). "Finnish church group reports child abuse over 30 yrs". Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  17. "Finnish church admits child abuse cases". April 7, 2011. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  18. "Lestadiolaiset modernilla noitaroviolla". July 8, 2015. Archived from the original on November 19, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.