Nokia Mission revival movement to set up separate church in August

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Markku Koivisto, the leader of the Tampere-based Nokia Mission charismatic religious movement, announced during Easter weekend that he would resign from the ministry of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church and set up a separate denomination.
     Dr. Hanna Salomäki, a theologian working at the Church Research Institute of the Finnish Lutheran Church, sees Saturday's announcement as a turning point in the history of Finnish revival movements. Previously, the Lutheran Church has managed to incorporate most such movements.
     Salomäki expects some of Koivisto's supporters to follow their leader's example, and quit the church, but the exact impact is hard to predict. There is no registry of supporters of the Nokia Mission, and some of those involved are already members of the Pentecostal movement or other Christian denominations outside the Lutheran Church.
     
Salomäki, who attended the Tampere Easter event where the planned split was announced, said that the reaction among the crowd was quite calm. She said that some of those attending clapped and cheered the decision, but most of the people there were rather quiet.
     
Splitting from the established Lutheran Church means that the Nokia Mission will be free of the church's authority.
     Until now, it has been possible to have communion at Nokia Mission events only a few times a year with special permission.
     Nokia mission office chief Markus Korhonen says that the organisation and the new church that is to be established this year will operate parallel to each other.
     The revival organisation has both Lutheran ministers and representatives of other denominations among its leaders.
     
Koivisto has had his right to serve as a Lutheran minister revoked twice for acting against the teachings of the church. Once he resigned form a vicar's position on his own.
     Koivisto was a candidate in the election for the Lutheran Bishop of Tampere, but he fell in the first round of voting.


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Helsingin Sanomat