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Laymen and Their Work
PROTESTANTISM IN NORTHERN
EUROPE.
By Frederick Lynch,
Editor-in-Chief of "The Christian
Work," Interdenominational,
New York.
We have been spending a month
in the Scandinavian countries, most
of the time in Sweden, and it has
been very interesting to study Pro
testantism in its stronghold. For it
is pure and unadulterated here. There
is no Roman Catholicism to speak of,
and the Protestantism is of the pure
IiUtheran variety. There are a few
Methodists and Baptists, but they are
so few in number that even in the
big cities they are quite lost. Luther
anism is the State Cnurch in Sweden
and Denmark, and in Norway it is
the national religion. Methodists and
Baptists are looked upon as interlop
ers and outside of Stockholm and one
or two other big cities are regarded
by the people as queer "sects." The
people cannot understand why they
have come and wonder why America
sends them and Adventists and Pen
tecostal brethren and other groups
they never heard of until they ar
rived.
The first question we were inter
ested in was that of the organization
of the churches. Being all of one
faith simplifies this very greatly. The
city is divided up into parishes. All
the people within a certain section be
long to one parish. One church where
we preached in Stockholm had twenty
thousand souls in its parish. For the
care of these twenty thousand five
clergy were appointed by the Bishop.
This seems a small number of pastors
for so many people. (The disposition
is to increase the number in all the
parishes in time.) But three things
must be remembered. One is that
these people all live in one section of
the city, in the neighborhood of the
church; secondly, the clergy expect to
give practically all their time to pas
toral work. The clergy here do not
take part in the civic life' of the city
to anything like the extent they do
in America. They are pastors pri
marily and many of them work day
after day simply ministering to their
own people. Often they do not leave
the parish for months, even for com
mittee meetings. In the third place
they do not visit as do our Ameri
can pastors, except in cases of sick
ness, trouble or for fuuerals. One pas
tor told me that in his parish they
had so many christenings aud funerals
that they divided up the work. He
would take all of them one week, an
other pastor all the next week and so
on in rotation. Often every moment of
the week was thus occupied.
Again the pastors here devote much
more time to the religious education
of the children than do our pastors.
Not so much is left to Sunday schools.
The pastors themselves, or approved
teachers, meet the children. In the
weeks preceding confirmation the pas
tors are instructing the childron daily
in the things of the faith. There are
several deaconesses connected with
every parish. These women are
trained in regular deaconesses schools
? we visited a large and most admir
ably appointed one in Upsala ? and
devote all their time to the cause of
the sick and poor. They wear uniforms
and are seen everywhere much as the
sisters of charity aro seen In Roman
Catholic countries. They have prac
tically the same training that trained
nurses have in America.
We found considerable difference in
the various churches we visited, not
in the liturgy. But in the manner of
conducting it. In some churches the
pastor read the service and wore a
simple black robe before the altar.
In other churches he sang or intoned
the service and wore gorgeous chas
ubles of red and gilt. The hymns were
very impressive and sung with great
heartiness and with superb volume of
tone. They are nearly all of the na
ture of chorales and their slow and
stately movement seems some what in
keeping with the Northern character.
We were occasionally told, though,
that the younger people, who have
become acquainted with some of the
modern English church music, might
welcome tunes with somewhat more
logical movement, as those used by
the Anglican Church, for instance. We
wondered, in some of the services,
whether the younger men and women,
especially the boys and girls, might
not be more interested in the service,
if it was lightened up a bit by some
more tuneful music. There is a happy
medium between the Bach chorale and
the ragtime of the American revival
hymns.
The preaching interested us very
much. It is undeniably more schol
arly on the whole than in the aver
age American Church. The pulpit is
regarded more as a chair of instruc
tion than as a place of exhortation,
though exhortation is by no means
absent. The texts for the whole year
are chosen for the pastor, and are
given in the prayer book. This has
two or three things in its favor. First
of all, It insures the covering of the
whole range of Christian doctrine and
virtues during the year. Secondly,
it keeps the element of variety in the
pastor's preaching. There is danger
that pastors may become particularly
interested in one phrase of Christian
truth and preach on that everlast
ingly. It may be temperance, or mis
sions, or amusements, or international
peace or any other subject. (One
American layman once told me that
his pastor had become obsessed with
the idea that free trade between na
tions was the solution of the war prob
lem and that they got rree trade every
Sunday, even at communion, and on
Easter Day.) This method guards
against that and keeps the pastor
thinking on all aspects of the faith.
Finally, the people know beforehand
what the text of the sermon is going
to be and can study it during the prer
ceding . week. Some pastors encour
age this study, believing that it in
creases the interest in the churches.
It might be added, also, that it saves
the pastors the worry or choosing a
new text every week ? which is a
woTry to some pastors. There is much
to be said on the other side, howeVer,
such as taking away some of the spon
taneity rs? preaching, turning the
preacher's mind from some particular
inbreathing of the Holy Spirit that
may be possessing him for the mo
ment, making it difficult to deal with
some particular crisis arising in the
people's or the nation's life. We are
rather inclined toward it ourselves
after observing it carefully, and know
ing, as we do, the danger of ruts in
preaching. We doubt, though, if it
would ever find favor with our free
American churches.
We were interested in zujKing two
questions everywhere we went" the
first as to whether the people were
attending church as much as did their
fathers, or not; and the second as to
(Continued on page 13)
PRESBYTERIANS
"LISTEN IN" DECEMBER FIRST
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT TO BE BROADCASTED ON THAT EVENING
On Friday, December 1st, several great Southern newspaper wireless stations will broad
cast announcement of
LAYMEN'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT'S EIGHTH BIENNIAL
GENERAL CONVENTION
This will be the first announcement and will include convention cities, dates, the theme,
some" of the names of the strong speakers, and other facts of interest to all Presbyterans.
Information will also be given al>out the Woman's Auxiliary Parallel Conventions.
WIRELESS STATIONS:
HOUSTON POST
ATLANTA JOURNAL, 8 to 9 P. M. MEMPHIS PRESS, 8:15 to 9:15 P. M.