Scandinavian Pietism

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Scandinavian Pietism

Evangelical Covenant Church

5101 N Francisco Ave., Chicago, IL 60625

The Evangelical Covenant Church has its origins in the Pietist movement in the State Lutheran Church of Sweden. The movement, which originated in Germany in the 1600s and spread to Sweden during the 1720s, was legally suppressed in Sweden (from 1726 to 1858) but periodically reemerged. During the early nineteenth century, new forms of revival appeared, encouraged and led by a variety of non-Swedish agents. One of these, George Scott (1804–1874), a Methodist pastor born in Scotland who was brought to Sweden to minister to English industrial workers in Stockholm, influenced Karl Olof Rosenius (1816–1868), a lay preacher; the musician Oskar Ahnfelt (1813–1882); and Anders Wiberg, a Baptist preacher. Rosenius became editor of Pietisten, Scott’s periodical. He also began to hold conventicles, meetings similar to the English religious societies of the early eighteenth century, and aided the development of a revived hymnody. Under Rosenius’s leadership, a national revival swept Sweden and was largely organized with the assistance of the Evangelical National Foundation, the missionary society within the Lutheran Church of Sweden (1856).

Members of the revival movement migrated to America during the mid-nineteenth century. At first, the Swedes joined and attempted to stay within the various Lutheran synods, especially the Augustana Synod (1860). These efforts to unite Swedish immigrants in a Lutheran church failed to attract Baptists, Methodists, and eventually the revivalists known as “Mission Friends” who began to arrive at the close of the Civil War. These Mission Friends began to organize their own congregations after 1868. Two synods were formed, the Swedish Lutheran Mission Synod in 1873 and the Swedish Lutheran Ansgarius Synod in 1884. In 1885 the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant Church of America was formed out of the Mission Synod, the Ansgar Synod (which had dissolved in 1884), and several independent congregations. In 1937 the word “Swedish” was dropped; in 1957 the word “Mission” was dropped; and in 1983 the words “of America” were dropped.

According to the preamble of its constitution, “The Evangelical Covenant Church adheres to the affirmations of the Protestant Reformation regarding the Bible. It confesses that the Holy Scripture, the Old and New Testament, is the Word of God and the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct.” Although officially noncreedal, the constitution states that the church “affirms the historic confessions of the Christian Church, particularly the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed,” which is recited by every ordinand. An important book, Covenant Affirmations, by Donald Frisk, was published in 1981 as a means of clarifying the theological heritage and convictions of the Covenant Church. The central affirmations are (1) the centrality of the Word of God; (2) the necessity of the new birth; (3) a commitment to the whole mission of the church; (4) the church as a fellowship of believers; (5) a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit; and (6) the reality of freedom in Christ. The church originally articulated these affirmations in 1975 and then revised and expanded them in 2006. Although rooted in “classical Christianity,” the Covenant Church has resisted the limitations of creedal and confessional stances for the freedom and authority of the Word of God. “Such a confession,” states Covenant Affirmations, “does not tell us how little Covenanters believe, but how much they believe.” The Covenant Church, then, is an “evangelical” church, committed to proclaiming and living the gospel as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. Its freedom is illustrated in its openness to both infant and believer baptism.

The church is organized on a connectional congregational polity, which means that local churches operate autonomously in most matters and that congregations call their own ministers. The Covenant Church holds an annual meeting, and a Covenant Ministerium oversees ordination. There are 10 conferences and one region. An executive board of 26 members oversees activities during the year. A council of administrators includes the executive ministers of each department and the officers of the denomination. The Board of Benevolence oversees two hospitals, five enabling residences caring for adults with developmental disabilities, eleven continuing care retirement campuses and four assisted living communities. Covenant Publications is the publishing arm.

Membership

In 2007 the church reported 121,549 members (120,030 in the United States and 1,519 in Canada), 747 congregations, and 2,052 ministers. Covenant missionaries serve in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Colombia, Congo, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, France, Guam, Japan, Laos, Mexico, Mongolia, Russia, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Taiwan, and Thailand, as well as in Central and East Asia. They also partner with sister churches in Chile, Germany, India, Kenya, the Philippines, and South Africa.

Educational Facilities

North Park University and Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois.

Centro Hispano de Estudios Teológicos, Bell Gardens, California.

Periodicals

The Covenant Companion. • The Covenant Home Altar. • The Covenant Quarterly.

Sources

Evangelical Covenant Church. www.covchurch.org/.

Anderson, Glenn. Covenant Roots. Chicago: Covenant Press, 1980.

Anderson, Philip J. One Body…Many Members. Chicago: Covenant Publications, 1994.

Hawkinson, James R. Glad Hearts. Chicago: Covenant Publications, 2003.

Olsson, Karl A. A Family of Faith. Chicago: Covenant Press, 1975.

———. By One Spirit. Chicago: Covenant Publications, 2002.

———. Into One Body… by the Cross. 2 vols. Chicago: Covenant Press, 1985–1986.

Evangelical Free Church of America

901 E 78th St., Minneapolis, MN 55420

The Evangelical Free Church of America was formed in 1950 by the merger of two Scandinavian independent Pietistic associations of churches that had grown out of nineteenth-century revivals: the Swedish Evangelical Free Church and the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Free Church Association. The Swedish Evangelical Free Church came into existence in 1884. It was composed of congregations that preferred an association of autonomous congregations rather than a typical denominational structure. These congregations had strong feelings about maintaining their own autonomy and at the same time desired to sponsor missionary ministry overseas through an association of churches rather than the typical synodic structure. This association was established at a meeting in Boone, Iowa, in 1884. An independent religious periodical, Chicago-Bladet, established by John Martenson, was a catalyst for bringing together the 27 representatives at Boone.

The Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Free Church Association was formed by immigrants from Denmark and Norway who had been influenced by the pietistic revivals in their homelands. The ministry of Rev. Fredrick Franson (1852–1908) of Bethlehem Church in Oslo led to the formation of the Mission Covenant Church of Norway, to which some of the immigrants had belonged. In 1889 a periodical, Evangelisten, was launched in Chicago, and in 1891 the Western Evangelical Free Church Association was organized. Later that same year an Eastern Association of Churches was formed. A merger of the Eastern and Western groups was made in 1909, with the church taking the name of the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Free Church Association.

Formed in 1950, the Evangelical Free Church of America adopted a Confession of Faith that stresses the essentials of the Reformation tradition, though the definite influence of evangelicalism is evident. The Bible is declared to be “the inspired Word of God, without error in the original writings.” The Second Coming is seen as personal (meaning Jesus will come in person), premillennial (he will come before the millennium to bind Satan, and he will reign for a thousand years with his saints on earth), and imminent. Polity is congregational. There is an annual conference to oversee the cooperative endeavors of the church, including the credentialing of ministers and a ministerial fellowship.

Membership

In 2008 the church reported 1,303 congregations with a total average weekly attendance of 356,364. Internationally, missionary work is carried on in 45 countries. There are a wide variety of domestic ministries.

Periodicals

EFCA Today.

Sources

Evangelical Free Church of America. www.efca.org.

Forstrom, Jim. A Living Legacy: Evangelical Free Church of America: A Pictorial History. St. Louis, MO: Bradley, 2002.

Norton, W. Wilbert, et al. The Diamond Jubilee Story. Minneapolis: Free Church Publications, 1959.

Olson, Arnold Theodore. This We Believe. Minneapolis: Free Church Press, 1961.

———. Believers Only. Minneapolis: Free Church Publications, 1964.

Moravian Church in North America

Northern Province, 1021 Center St., PO Box 1245, Bethlehem, PA 18016-1245

The Moravian Church in America dates to the arrival of Bp. August Gottlieb Spangenberg (1704–1792) in Georgia in 1735. Because their pacifism was incompatible with conscription laws, the Moravians chose to leave Georgia. They traveled to Pennsylvania and began work there, centered in the settlements of Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Lititz. Their primary purpose was the evangelization of Native Americans. Efforts were also made, unsuccessfully, to bring together Germans of different denominations in Pennsylvania. The church spread as other Moravian settlements were established.

In 1753 Spangenberg began work in North Carolina, where Moravians founded the town of Bethabara. In 1771 Moravians founded Salem (now Winston-Salem). Salem became the headquarters for the Southern Province. Beginning in the 1850s, congregations were established in the American Midwest and Canadian West among the German and Scandinavian immigrants. Suburban growth after World War II and congregation planting among immigrants from the Caribbean have brought new members in recent decades.

Moravians are considered to have missionary zeal. They were among the first of the Protestant churches to realize that world evangelization was central to the life of the Christian church. Moravians concentrated on people neglected by other Christians. They began work among slaves in the West Indies in 1732, and a main motive in coming to America was to preach to Native Americans.

In order to make American Moravians self-supporting, a plan by Spangenberg called the “Economy” was established. It amounted to a communal system, with Bishop Spangenberg and a board of directors as supervisors. All the church members placed their time, talents, and labor at the church’s disposal. In return they were assured of a home, food, and clothing as well as the fellowship of the church. By this means affluent agricultural and industrial centers were established, missionaries supported, and books printed and circulated. The missionaries itinerated throughout the colonies and abroad. The Economy lasted about two decades, although Moravians maintained closed communities in Pennsylvania and North Carolina into the nineteenth century.

Currently the church in the United States and Canada is organized into two provinces, Northern and Southern. The North is divided into four geographical districts. Each province is governed by a provincial elders’conference, which includes laypersons and clergy. Each local church has a council of elders (who handle spiritual affairs) and trustees (who handle temporal affairs). Ministers are called through the agreement of congregational boards and the provincial governing board. Every seven years there is a meeting of the Unity, that is, the representatives of all 19 provinces worldwide.

Doctrinally the Moravians follow the motto “In essentials unity; in nonessentials liberty; in all things love.” The church holds to the essentials of Protestant doctrine, which they see to include the Bible as the source of Christian doctrine. Central is “heart religion,” a relationship with Jesus Christ. The resultant seeming lack of concern for doctrinal precision has freed the denomination from schism through its five centuries of existence.

The Moravians are distinguished by certain practices that reflect Pietist roots. The love feast, a simple shared meal, became an expression of communal oneness. Moravians follow the pattern of the traditional church year and have developed a simplified liturgy. Infant baptism and Holy Communion (on certain designated feast days) are practiced. While most clergy do not use clerical vestments, a plain white surplice is worn by ministers for communion. The Holy Week services, which include the entire Passion narrative and culminate in the Easter Sunrise Service, are the height of the Christian year. There is considerable diversity in worship. Music, which was an important part of the Pietist renewal, was furthered among the Moravians by Nikolaus Ludwig, graf von Zinzendorf (1799–1760) and James Montgomery (1771–1854), both prolific hymn writers, and expressed itself in numerous compositions of sacred and secular music in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Half of the American Moravians live in Pennsylvania and North Carolina; the other half are scattered around North America in 15 other states and three provinces. Both the Northern and Southern provinces have active church history and archives programs, among the best of American church bodies. The mission tradition of the Moravian Church as a whole is reflected in the fact that four-fifths of the world’s Moravians are in Africa or the Caribbean Basin.

The Moravian Church is a member of both the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. Moravian provinces in the Caribbean are affiliated with the Caribbean Conference of Churches. Alaskan Moravians participate in ecumenical work in Siberia.

Membership

In 1996 the church reported 50,500 members in the United States and 4,000 in Canada. Worldwide membership was 736,000. In 2008 there were 156 congregations in the United States and Canada.

Educational Facilities

Moravian College and Theological Seminary, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Salem College, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Linden Hall, Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Moravian Academy, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Periodicals

The Moravian.

Sources

Moravian Church in North America. www.moravian.org.

Allen, Walser H. Who Are the Moravians. Bethlehem, PA: Author, 1966.

Groenfeldt, John S. Becoming a Member of the Moravian Church. Winston-Salem, NC: Comenius Press, 1954.

Hamilton, J. Taylor, and Kenneth G. Hamilton. A History of the Moravian Church: The Unitas Fratrum, 1722–1957. Bethlehem, PA: Interprovincial Board of Christian Education/Moravian Church in America, 1957.

Schattschneider, Allen W. Through Five Hundred Years, 4th ed. Bethlehem, PA: Comenius Press, 1996.

Weinlick, John R. The Moravian Church through the Ages. Rev. ed. Bethlehem, PA/Winston-Salem, NC: Moravian Church in America, 1996.

Unity of the Brethren

c/o Marvin Chlapek, 1612 S 43rd St., Temple, TX 76504

While many Moravians fled to Saxony following persecutions in the eighteenth century, some remained behind in Moravia and Bohemia. In the mid-nineteenth century some of these Brethren migrated to Texas. There, under the leadership of the Rev. A. Chumsky and H. Juren, they organized the Evangelical Union of Bohemian and Moravian Brethren in North America. A mutual aid society was organized in 1905, and the Hus Memorial School, for training church school teachers, was established in 1914. In 1924 the Hus Memorial Home was founded in Temple, Texas. An independent group, organized by A. Motycha, joined the Evangelical Union in 1919, and the name Evangelical Unity of Bohemian and Moravian Brethren in North America (later shortened to Unity of the Brethren) was adopted.

Doctrinally the Unity uses the 1608 Moravian Catechism and the Confessions of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. It emphasizes the Protestant consensus of theological belief. It practices infant baptism and open communion with all Christians; its ministers are seminary trained. Government is presbyterian, with power invested in a biennial synod of ministers and church delegates. The synod meets in July. Ministers are called by the congregations.

Membership

In 1998 Unity of the Brethren reported 27 churches with 3,218 members served by 39 clergy. There is a missionary family in Honduras and one in Mexico.