Church Elections in Sweden

In Sweden we have church elections on the 20th of September. This means that everybody that is a member of the Swedish Church has a chance to decide who will lead the Swedish church. "Representatives are elected directly to the Parish Assembly or Parish Council in parishes, to the Association Vestry in an association of parishes, to the Diocesan Council in dioceses and to the General Synod at the national level." (taken from svenskakyrkan).

People that know me will of course ask themselves why the heck I'm blogging about this since I'm most definitely not a church goer nor am I a believer but something that might be less well known is that I, just like a large majority of other Swedes, am still a member of the Swedish Church. We are about 9 million people living in Sweden and out of those 9 million over 5.5 million are a member of our church. One reason for this is most likely that when you are baptised in Sweden you automagically become a member of the church and in 2007 the number of children that were baptised were record breaking low but that still meant that 62.3% (link in Swedish) of the children were baptised. So while a majority of us are still becoming members (most likely because our parents think the cermony around the baptism is nice) most of us can't be arsed to leave the church or have other reasons for not wanting to leave it. Personally I don't believe in god nor a higher power but I do believe in heritage and history and my member fee that I pay through my tax because I'm a member goes to pay for the upkeep of all the churches we have around the country and it also pays a bit towards my grave for when that day comes. Not that I think I need a grave personally but since I enjoy visiting graves of my relatives that has passed away to reminisce about them I want people that I leave behind to have the ability to do the same in case they would like to. But I digress.

So why am I writing about this? Well it's as simple as that I watched the news this morning and they were talking about how few of the 5+ million people that are allowed to vote in the election actually do vote. I only found numbers from Lund where apparently only 11% of the people allowed to vote actually voted last time around (article in Swedish). The news this morning interviewed a priest and asked him why he thought so few people took part in the elections and he thought it's because people think the church is old, stuffy and boring. Others that participate in the elections seem to think that people in general think it's to political so they have formed sections that don't have any political ties what so ever and run in the church elections with those. Both of these things might help get more people involved in the church elections for all that I know but for me personally it won't make a difference at all. The only reason I don't vote in the church elections is that I just don't care. I'm all for keeping our old churches that has been around for hundreds of years (some getting close to a thousand years old, like this one) because they are a part of our history and our culture. But other than that they can do what ever they want in those buildings for all that I care. If they want to have rave parties in churches then go right ahead, if they want to have one priest that get all the money that are left over after the upkeep on the buildings are paid then go right ahead. The day that the churches fall apart and the priests grow to fat is the day I'll start caring about what they do and then I'll most likely work for the abolishment of the Swedish church and having the government take over as the caretaker of the Swedish churches. I will most definitely not start going to church just because you try to make it less old and stuffy, actually come to think of it that might even make me less inclined to go to church. Church to me has nothing to do with beliefs but a lot to do with traditions. And I don't mind saying a few prayers in church for the sake of tradition but I will most definitely not stand around and sing new cool tunes and I don't go to church to watch theatre ... I hardly go do theatres either for Christ sake.

So bottom line Swedish church, you don't want me to vote in your election so stop asking me to because you might end up making me not wanting to be a member just because you successfully pissed me off.