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CHUIiCH AND RELIGION.
331
communion, and also foreigners who profess the Christian faith can, with sanction
of the Government, form their own congregations. This right has been claimed
less than one might have thought. Adherents of another Church who contribute
to its support, if it is acknowledged by the Government, obtain, since 1908, a
reduction on the rate due for the Swedish Church. The principle followed is that
every Swedish citizen must support financially some religious body, and, likewise,
must in some measure contribute to the upkeep of the Swedish Church, partly
because it has a duty of public education by no means commensurate with that
of any other religious community in the country, partly and especially because
its officers have a number of functions which are quite secular, notably the
keeping of the parish registers, all the more important because civil registration
does not exist. Freedom in religion is so widely established that no one suffers
infringement of his rights as a citizen on account of belonging to some other
Christian faith, or to the Jewish faith. The King and his Ministers must
"confess the pure evangelical doctrine", just as those who occupy positions as teachers
of theology, or give instruction in Christianity. Persons who profess a foreign
faith have no right to deal with questions that concern the care of religion, its
instruction, nor offices within the Swedish Church. Their children are free from
compulsory religious instruction in schools, on the condition that their proper
guardians provide for their receiving due instruction in that subject. Religious
freedom is not established completely, inasmuch as the law does not allow the
introduction of orders of monks or nuns nor of monasteries within the Kingdom,
it takes no cognizance of sheer negation of faith, nor, finally, does it permit
public exercises in religion of a heathens type.
Freedom of congregations has practically been an accomplished fact ever since
the abolition of the Conventicle Act in 1858. Parish limits are done away,
inasmuch as no obstacle is placed in the way of the employment for Church
ceremonies of any priest who is considered suitable, if he is willing. Civil
marriage has been optional since 1908.
For ecclesiastical legislation is requisite the unanimous decision of
Government, Riksdag, and Convocation, except in liturgical questions,
when only the Government and Convocation co-operate.
Convocation, instituted in 1863 (to replace the Estate of the Clergy
separately represented in the four-chamber parliament, consisting of the
four Estates of the Realm — abolished in 1866), consists at present of
30 of the clergy (among them the 12 bishops and the Pastor Primarius
of Stockholm, as ex officio members) together with 30 laymen
representatives, elected indirectly from the dioceses by those entitled to
vote in the Vestry Meeting. Convocation has met once every five years
since 1868, and in 1909 and 1910 in addition.
For the purposes of ecclesiastical administration, Sweden is divided
(beg. of 1914) into 13 dioceses, subdivided into 188 deaneries, each
presided over by a Dean. The number of livings is 1 402, some of which
include more than one parish, the total number of parishes being 2 500. At
the head of every diooese there is a Bishop, supported by a Chapter,
otherwise called "Consistory". A Bishop is selected by the King from among
the three candidates who, in the election by the chapter and clergy of the
f diocese, have received the largest number of votes. The bishop of the
Uppsala diocese, for whose election special regulations are in force, has the title
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