This essay is about the discussion concerning graduation celebrations in The Swedish Church. Since this discussion is recurrent in the media when it is getting close to the end of the term in the Swedish schools, it is interesting to see how people choose to discuss this issue. This essay will look at how this issue is discussed within the Swedish school and the Swedish church. My research questions that I will use are: How is the issue of the church as a venue for the end of school year discussed in the Swedish Church's newspaper and in the Teachers' Union's trade magazine, Läraren.  This will be done through a content analysis of articles taken from these two newspapers where they discuss the church as a venue for the graduation. I will use a secularization theory developed by the sociologist of religion Thomas Luckmann in which he assumes that one can look at religion from two perspectives, church-oriented religion, and individual-centered religion. The survey in this paper shows that most people are in favor of using the church as a venue for the graduation’s celebrations and that they see it more as a tradition to be there such as something religious.

Syftet med denna studie är att ge kunskap om hur diakoner i Svenska kyrkan upplever att deras yrkesidentitet påverkas av spänningen mellan att vara yrkesutbildad socionom och att vara kallad till diakon av Gud och kyrkan. Studien baserades på åtta kvalitativa, semistrukturerade intervjuer med diakoner från åtta olika församlingar i Stockholms stift. Empirin har bearbetats genom tematisk analys och hermeneutisk meningstolkning och analyserats utifrån begrepp från två rollteorier. Studien visar att diakonerna kan förhålla sig till det sakrala och profana i sina yrkesidentiteter på tre olika sätt. För vissa diakoner är det sakrala och profana i yrkesidentiteten välintegrerat, dessa diakoner upplever inte några motstridigheter mellan det sekulära i att vara socionom och det religiösa i att vara kallad av Gud. För andra diakoner tar antingen det sakrala eller det profana över, exempelvis om de upplever att de inte har tillräckligt med kunskap i teologi och därför främst arbetar med socialt arbete och det profana. Det tredje förhållningssättet är att det kontinuerligt sker en förhandling mellan det sakrala och profana, detta tar sig till exempel uttryck i att diakonerna ibland får stöd och vägledning genom sitt kall, men ibland genom sin kunskap från socionomutbildningen. Gemensamt för diakonerna är att relationen mellan det sakrala och profana i diakonernas yrkesidentitet påverkas av kontextuella faktorer, som organisationen och det sekulära samhället. / The purpose of this study is to provide knowledge about how deacons in the Church of Sweden experience that their professional identity is affected by the tension between being a professional social worker and being called to be a deacon by God and the church. The study is based on eight qualitative, semi-structured interviews with deacons from eight different parishes in the diocese of Stockholm. The material was processed through thematic analysis and hermeneutic interpretation of meaning. It was later analyzed based on concepts from two role theories. The study shows that deacons can relate to the sacred and profane in their professional identities in three different ways. For some deacons, the sacred and profane in their professional identity is well integrated, these deacons do not experience any contradictions between the secular in being a social worker and the religious in being called by God. For other deacons, either the sacred or the profane take over, for example if they feel that they do not have enough knowledge in theology and therefore mainly work with social work and the profane. The third approach is that there is continuous negotiation between the sacred and the profane. An example of this is that deacons sometimes find support and guidance through their calling, and sometimes through their education in social work. The deacons have in common that the relationship between the sacred and the profane in their professional identity is influenced by contextual factors, such as the organization and the secular society.

This study examines how the organizational model of the Church of Sweden as stipulated in laws and regulations can contribute to an understanding of practical board work among members of working committees that are related to individual board members’ understanding of the organizational notions collaboration and responsibility. The study further examines how these two notions may be affected by how the organizational model of the Church of Sweden describes and outlines how collaboration and responsibility should ideally work within the Church of Sweden. Through qualitative analyses of regulatory documents, observations of board work and interviews and surveys with active board members, both clergy and lay members, of working committees within the Church of Sweden, the study finds that an ideal logic of how the organizational model of the Church of Sweden should work is conveyed through laws and regulations, but finds that the studied working committees follow these to a limited extent. Instead the study concludes that the practice of the studied working committees is determined by how individual members understand and believe the organizational model should work, i.e. how clergy and lay members within the working committees should cooperate. There is an indication of a correlation between how the working committees organize their work in the committees and how they relate to the organizational model of the Church of Sweden. The working committees that have a weak co-operation, seem to focus more on internal issues within their local church, while working committees that have a strong co-operation tend to focus more on strategic public issues within their local diocese.

The aim of this study is to analyse the consensus decision making methods that are used at the annual conference of the Uniting Church in Sweden. The methods are analysed through the experiences of people that have attended the conference. Seven participants in the annual conference have been interviewed, and their expressed experiences have then been viewed through Anthony Giddens’ structuration theory, the theory of Jane Mansbridge et. al. regarding developments to the concept of deliberative democracy and through Paul Fiddes and his thoughts on finding the mind of Christ. The study concludes that the decision making methods has so far been well received and applied towards their objectives, though there is room for improvement.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether young people with neuropsychiatric disabilities feel that they have a spiritual longing. The research questions are also about what young people experience that which their spiritual longing is expressed and what conditions and obstacles exist to meet their longing and needs. With the help of role theory, language theory, and the theory of the illusionist world, new knowledge about young people's spiritual longing is gained.   The essay uses a qualitative method and collects empirical data by having two (2) group interviews, the first was with key people who are active in the business. And the second interview was with some young people who are active in the same business. With the help of the key people, broader knowledge has been achieved. By interviewing young people, their spiritual longing has been identified.   The essay shows that young people have a spiritual longing and that it must be allowed to take place and be taken seriously. The young people and the key people show signs that a language and an expression of spiritual longing is something that needs to be explored and developed. The essay concludes that young people have a spiritual longing and there are good conditions for further development, but more knowledge is needed when dealing with young people and their spiritual longing. The Church of Sweden has come a long way on its journey to a community, but there are still unexplored paths to follow.

Exercising power is unavoidable in aid work because donors convey money to grant recipients. Exercising power is therefore part of aid work and something donors and recipients must relateto. The need to create a more equal relationship between donor and recipient has been a recurring issue in aid work and an important part of the aid decolonization process. This qualitativecase study examines how employees at Act Church of Swedens Africa unit interpret and relateto its position of power in partnership relations. The essay also examines if employees at Act Church of Sweden can identify whether power discourse affects recipient organisations' stanceon equality issues. The essay is based on a postcolonial theory that was formed using the concepts of paternalism and power, colonial discourse, partnership discourse and discourse in thespirit of Maria Eriksson Baaz (2005) and Ania Loomba (2008). The theory functions as apatchwork when using Norman Fairclough's critical discourse analysis because the conceptsare often sewn and patched together in the form of Fairclough's three-dimensional model as ananalysis tool. Norman Fairclough's method is used to analyze text, discursive practice and social practice. The result establishes informants' interpretations and approach to legitimatepower, above all based on its job description where exercising power is a "natural" part of theprogram manager's duties, since a significant part of the work involves donors conveying money to recipients. Regarding the informants' position of power, the focus has been on how thepromotion of shifting power is described and how it should be done. Relevant concepts for thepractical process of shifting power are the way Act Church of Sweden work according to ahuman rights-based approach, capacity development, local ownership, working more locally, information sharing and the reorgansation that came into force in early 2023. Regarding employees' interpretation of whether partners adapt in their approach to gender equality and health,informants state that it depends on the local context. Partners generally adapt because they genuinely have a similar view of gender equality and health as Act Church of Sweden. Or if they do not have the same view the employees would not certainly know. The constant paradox inthe analysis of power relations within aid is something that manifests itself when looking atpower relations in a larger perspective. Because employees both within Act Church of Sweden, back donors and recipient organisations are part of power hierarchies in themselves.

No description available.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att lämna ett litet bidrag till Svenska kyrkans självreflektion och därmed till ekumeniska samtal genom att undersöka sammanläggningarnas konsekvenser för församlingssyn och liv. Med denna sammanfattning besvarar jag även frågeställningarna; Vilken ecklesiologi kan efter relationsförändringarna utläsas i Svenska kyrkans utredningar och i Läronämndens yttranden över territorialförsamlingarna? Vad ger denna för implikationer för församlingen som koinonia? Genom att analysera den ecklesialitet som framträder i Svenska kyrkans utredningar och Läronämndens yttranden har jag sökt finna svar på frågan hur territorialförsamlingarnas ecklesiologi framträder och vilka implikationer detta kan ha för den ekumeniska förståelsen av kyrkan som koinonia. Jag har visat ett plausibelt samband mellan sammanläggningar av territorialförsamlingar med kommunalisering av kyrkan och ett organisatoriskt skifte från Gemeinschaft till Gesellschaft.Territorialförsamlingarna har genom sammanläggningar gått mot större ekonomiska enheter med större geografisk storlek och ökad genomsnittlig mängd tillhöriga per församling. Man har rört sig från ett övre tak av antalet medlemmar i en församling till en miniminivå. Denna nivå syftar till att utgöra ett tillräckligt stort kyrkoavgiftsunderlag i syfte att bära kostnader för personal och fastigheter. Med detta har man rört sig från att antalet medlemmar avgör mängden personal till att mängden personal avgör antalet medlemmar.Samtidigt som antalet medlemmar minskar ökar antalet anställda. Svenska kyrkan kan beskrivas som tjänsteinriktad folkkyrka där välutbildad och kunnig personal utgör den faktiska församlingen medan den tillhörige primärt konsumerar religiösa tjänster. Den demokratiska organiseringens offentligrättsliga karaktär stärker den Gesellschaft¬-struktur som utvecklats över åren. Möjligheten för den enskilda att ta ansvar för, och engagera sig i, sin församling som förtroendevald går via nomineringsgruppernas respektive vallista och inte via det direkta engagemanget i församlingen. Man skulle kunna säga att församlingsbon lämnar över sitt religiösa liv att skötas av anställa och nomineringsgrupper å sina vägnar. Ett slags helig gemenskap på entreprenad där den enskildes ansvar flyttas till nomineringsgruppen och kyrkolivet sköts av proffs medan den enskilde döpte kan komma och fylla på sitt själsliv vid behov eller vid högtidliga tillfällen. De anställda och förtroendevalda bildar en slags ställföreträdande koinonia medan de tillhöriga blir passiva konsumenter som inte ser sig själva som kyrka. Denna ställföreträdande koinonia riskerar även att leda till en organisatorisk donatism, där förståelsen av kyrkan som en samling rättfärdiggjorda syndare tonas ner då graden av professionalitet ökar.När kyrkan blir för lik världen hamnar dess skapelseteologiska annorlundaskap i bakvattnet till förmån för statsvetenskaplig och ekonomisk rationalism och då riskerar kyrkan att delas upp i en yttre organisation och en inre gemenskap där den förras mätbarhet hamnar i förgrunden. Kyrkans organisering behöver istället hålla ihop med dess syfte att människor ska komma till tro och kristen gemenskap skapas. Kyrkans annorlundaskap som koinonia grundad i Treenigheten kan utgöra en förebild för världen och ge just de förutsättningar som en öppen folkkyrka behöver för sitt grundläggande uppdrag, sin lagstadgade identitet, sin ekonomi och som en del av den ekumeniska rörelsen. Inte minst i en tid av transition mot att vara en kyrka med mer likartade förutsättningar som andra samfund. / In the ecumenical movement the Church is often understood as koinonia – communion with (in) God realized in interpersonal community. In this essay, I have tried to show that the organizational structure in Church of Sweden after the separation of Church and state, risks forming a vicarious koinonia of staff and elected officials. Mergers of territorial parishes and an organizational shift from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft has shifted the view of who is part of the koinonia and put emphasis on employees and on the church as a provider of religious services while the parishioners are passive bystanders and form the basis for church tenth. The vicarious koinonia risks forming an organizational Donatism in which religious professionals replace the understanding of congregation as justified sinners, and of ecclesiological Docetism where the organization of the church is separated from its purpose of community and lived faith.  The church's identity as koinonia founded in the Trinity can set a model for the world and provide the conditions that an open folk church needs for its mission, its finances and as part of the ecumenical movement.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to explore how priests interpret the parables in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark using a hermeneutic qualitative approach and semi-structured interviews. The aim is to shed light on a selected group of priests in their roles within the context of the Church of Sweden, where interpretation is a part of their work, primarily focusing on the parables in the fourth chapter of Mark's Gospel and how this is done in interpretation, both in encounters with individuals and in preaching. An inductive approach has influenced the study, which also permeates the qualitative method with a focus on creating understanding to gain knowledge about the nature of these various phenomena among four priests. Generalization is not possible due to the small number of informants for making overall generalizations. Nor is it what has been sought. The aim of qualitative research is to gain a deeper understanding of a phenomenon and to illuminate how individuals experience it in their context. The study aims to understand how a specifically selected group of individuals, namely priests who have worked for an extended period within the Swedish Church, interpret the parables in Gospel of Mark.

A major motivation for this thesis is the creation of an exchange between the resources of the queer theology of the 2020s and the feminist liturgical movement in the 1990s, specifically regarding the theological consequences of the intersection of theologies of gender/sex with talk to and about God in the context of inclusive liturgical reform work.   This thesis conducts an analysis of the discourse regarding inclusive language in the motivational volume accompanying the never accepted handbook proposal for the Swedish church from year 2000. First by applying a reconfigured version of a method borrowed from analytical philosophy, excavates the views of gender/sex underlying the argumentation regarding inclusive language reform and gender-based discrimination. From these results a systematic reconstruction of the motivational volumes theology of gender/sex carried out. Finaly this reconstructed theology is critically evaluated by subjecting it to both the queer theology of Linn Tonstad and the feminist theology of Anne-Louise Eriksson  regarding the construction and meaning of gender/sex as well as of liturgical language and its oppressive and liberating functions.    This thesis concludes that the theology of gender/sex that follows from the motivational volume’s argumentation, is theologically problematic for the following reasons: The strict gender essentialism and dichotomic understanding om men and women are counterproductive to its emancipatory goal. By situating its argumentation in the patriarchal symbolic imaginary, its efforts to counteract patriarchal dominance becomes entangled in what Tonstad calls “the affective lives of binaries”. This suggests that every theology with an intention of inclusion and the combating of discrimination needs to commit itself to rigorous systematic examination of its theological premises’.       Finaly, not only does the lack of such a theology counteract any emancipatory attempt, it also risks when applied in liturgy to severely limit the God that the liturgy speaks to and of.