Record number of Finns quit Lutheran Church in 2007

Net loss of members increases nearly tenfold from 2000

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The proportion of Finns who are members of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church is declining, and approaching the 80 per cent mark. According to the Population Register Centre, only 81.7 per cent of the Finnish population were members of the church at the end of the year, down from 82.4 per cent a year earlier.
      The decline has been steady since 2000. A record number of people left the church last year - 37,481. This was nearly three times as many as in 2000.
      As the number of people joining the church has remained fairly stable, the net loss of members in the church - the difference between the number of people who join and the number of those who quit - has increased nearly tenfold during the present decade.
      In 2000 the number of people leaving the church was 2,400 higher than the number of new members, and last year, the figure was 26,521.
      Of those who quit the church, 86 per cent did so through the online eroakirkosta.fi service. The website, maintained by the Tampere Freethinkers, has been found especially by younger church-leavers, aged 18 to 29.
      Initial figures show that about 5,200 people resigned from Helsinki parishes. The figures do not yet show all of those who left in the last days of the year. The trend was slower in neighbouring Espoo and Vantaa.
     
In 2006 4,100 people resigned the church in Helsinki, indicating an increasing outward flow - in spite of the somewhat controversial high-profile "Faith, Hope, Love", campaign in the autumn.
      Seppo Simola, head of communications of the group of Helsinki Lutheran congregations, says that the campaign was not a failure, as the purpose of it was not to recruit more members, but rather to encourage people to ponder matters of faith.
      He also does not feel that people found the campaign annoying enough to leave the church, noting that the number of members has been declining steadily throughout the year.
      Although nearly all of those who quit the church in Helsinki did so online, Simola does not believe that the convenience of online resignation led to an increase in the number of resignations. "Church membership cannot hinge on technical gadgetry."
     
It is also possible to join the Lutheran Church online, and Simola says that some new members have come in that way.
      However, this is possible only for those who have once been members and who have left for some reason.
      For others, membership requires baptism, which is not possible on the Internet - at least not yet.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Church leavers again on the increase, but pace drops (3.1.2007)
  Lutheran Church loses over 70,000 members in 2000 - 2003 (28.10.2004)

Links:
  Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

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