kiwitt
Road to War Modder
1819
The Scandinavian Church Conference
The people of Scandinavia are feeling very anxious about the world situation and the recent wars and now more wars hang heavily in their minds. Some even held fears for their children's future as to what world awaits them. They have been raising their concerns with their church leaders. These were then passed onto the Bishops for each region and eventually reaching the Archbishops themselves. It should be noted that they are all of the Lutheran faith of Christianity.
With the recent unions of Sweden, Denmark and Norway (and hopefully Finland as well), the respective state churches decided that they need to hold a conference to discuss how they should be run and led. The Archbishop of Sweden - Jacob Axelsson Lindblom, was appointed to be chair at this conference. Matters to be discussed were as follows; Wars, Leadership and Autonomy, Missions by other religions, Government Relationships. All bishops from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland were invited to discuss these important matters. The conference will be held at the Cathedral of Uppsala in Sweden.
Conference Begins
Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and even Finnish bishops eventually all made their way to Uppsala to begin their discussions. Many bishops already knew each other well, even those from other nations as they were all Lutheran and attended the same training schools, so this made discussion easier.
1. War
The first matter to be discussed and probably the most important is War and how this will affect Scandinavia. The Swedish Minister for Religion was invited to explain the Scandinavian Union Neutrality Law in detail. He said that the key principle is that under no circumstance were any agreements to be entered into with any other nation. He explained that the risk of even a free trade agreement could be construed by others as a form of alliance with the other nation. Some nations, even offered Non-aggression or even Defensive Pacts for preferential trade agreements, so for this reason, no agreements will be signed with any nation and our Neutrality will continue to be emphasised. The Minister also said that with the recent declarations of war, our Neutrality position has again been emphasised at our Danish Internal Affairs office.
The bishops then discussed these matters and voted on the message to give to their respective flocks; "The Church believes that the Scandinavian Government is leading the right path, by staying NEUTRAL in these troubled times and War is unlikely to return to Scandinavia for some time."
2. Leadership and Autonomy
The second matter to be discussed is Leadership of the Scandinavia Church. Do we need four archbishops or just one, and who will be the head of the Scandinavian Church? This discussion became very heated when talk led to who should lead the church. The Archbishop of Sweden then stood up and said. "There is no Scandinavian Church, each nation in the union already has their own church and their own archbishop to lead them, this should continue as before." This seemed to calm the bishops down and they then agreed that there should be no change to leadership and will continue as before.
It was agreed the archbishops would meet annually to discuss current events and religious matters within the Scandinavian Union, however they would continue to lead their church in their respective nations.
3. Catholic and Jewish Missions
The Archbishop of Denmark then raised the "Incident at Copenhagen Gates". The Papal States sent Jesuits to the Scandinavian Union to preach to the population, based on the assumption that because it is a secular state, that they would be free to travel here and spread their word. They had travelled overland and were determined to reach Stockholm and preach. When they reached the gates of the city of Copenhagen an angry crowd forced the Jesuit party to reconsider their mission. A Rabbi party also decided to return and not proceed further.
While all agreed that the people of Scandinavia were free to worship as they want, the time is not right for other religions and orders to attempt to enter Scandinavia and preach. They also noted that as virtually all Scandinavians follow the teachings of the State Lutheran Churches, it would be unlikely that many people will want to hear other religions. In addition, given the events of 1814 and the suspicions any foreigners would be under, the safety of foreign preachers could not be assured.
It is hoped that this decision does not cause a diplomatic incident, so the Swedish Minister of Religion was instructed to pass this decision onto the Swedish Government for a more formal response to the Pope.
4. Government Relationships
The final matter to be discussed is the church’s relationship to the respective governments of the nations in Scandinavian Union. It was discussed that it had already being agreed that the each nation would continue to have their own church leadership and archbishops, so how will the church communicate with the government.
Norway and Denmark, had their own assemblies and First Ministers, and Sweden has a parliament and Prime Minister and Cabinet who reported to the King of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Finland situation is still unconfirmed. Given this situation it was decided that the archbishops should continue to report to their respective national governments and assemblies in the first instance for local administration issues as they currently do. More serious foreign diplomatic discussions should be referred to the Archbishop of Sweden, who can then discuss with the Swedish Minister of Religion.
Conference concludes
With these matters now resolved the Archbishop of Sweden declared the conference concluded and thanked everyone for their input and consideration. The Archbishop has been honoured with the “Royal Order of the Seraphim", by the King of Sweden for his leadership at this conference and Swedish Lutheran Church.
