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– It is clear that it is serious, for a long time we have seen that we will reduce the number of members, and thus we will also get reduced income in the membership fee and now the crown came and it became an even more difficult situation, says Wanja Lundby-Wedin ( S), First Vice President of the Church Board.
The church fee represents approximately 60 percent of the church’s income and is based on the taxable income of the members. With employment declining due to the pandemic, those incomes are expected to drop dramatically. In addition, lower revenues are expected from commercial sales, collections and returns.
Most of the church fee. goes to congregations at the local level. Carolina Davidson, pastor of Redvägs parish in Ulricehamn municipality in western Sweden, is currently leading work to merge three smaller pastorates into one.
– When they go together, they are not allowed to withdraw services just for the sake of the merger, so in the first stage there is no service money to save, but if we look at our functions, today we have three pastors who will be one, so that in the long run we save, says Pastor Carolina Davidson.
In what will be the new pastorate, there are 28 churches and about 20 other buildings. One of the churches has been kept cold, so it has been kept closed and not used. In another part of the parish, the rectory has been sold and built within the church itself.
– Of course there are those who do not think that this is an alternative that covers up in the same way, but when those comments reach me I usually say that this is just the beginning, it will require that we sell more, says Pastor Carolina. Davidson.
To relieve the congregations The changes will also be implemented at the national level, for example, the new joint salary center for the entire Church of Sweden, which will be operational in early 2022.
Wanja Lundby-Wedin (S), First Vice President of the Church Board, sees that more common solutions will be needed in the future.
– For example, digitization, central administrative systems that make it easier for our congregations to conduct business without having to bear too many administrative burdens. It’s something we’ve been working on for several years and it’s intensifying now as we see that we may need to save even more, says Lundby-Wedin.
