Scandinavia House Fort Wayne. Supporting the Confessional Remnant in Scandinavia. The Finnish bishops said in a joint statement that a pastor cannot belong to both the Mission Diocese and the Church of Finland. They note that when the new diocese consecrated Bishop Soramies, it laid the foundation for its own church body. It contends that CoF leadership has adopted unbiblical doctrines and practice and abandoned the Lutheran Confessions.
The new diocese has refrained from registering as a religious society. It is rather an organization of member congregations. One reason for this is that, as is common across Scandinavia, many congregation members also retain their membership in a CoF congregation, even though they no longer worship there for doctrinal reasons.
Several, or many, generations of ancestors may have worshiped in the old church, and be buried in the churchyard. These sorts of ties lead people to retain CoF membership even if they wish to find a believing worship fellowship. The Scandinavian Confessional movements have resisted identifying themselves as new church bodies for several reasons. They point out that they have remained faithful to the doctrines that all Lutheran pastors and bishops vowed at their ordinations to maintain.
If anyone ought to start a new church, they argue, it should be those who have violated their ordination vows and abandoned apostolic doctrine β who now control the church structures. The majority have been ordained through the Mission Province in Sweden and in Finland. If defrocked by CoF, these pastors would presumably no longer be able to preach or officiate in a CoF congregation. A possibly more serious threat would be to current CoF pastors who might wish to assist a congregation or mission plant of the new diocese.
The Gothenburg diocese of Sweden recently threatened Church of Sweden pastors who assist Mission Province congregations or fellowships. Across Scandinavia national church bishops have forbidden the renting or use of their facilities by the confessional groups β even though use by other religious groups is permitted. He notes that the question is power rather than spiritual issues. At the same time, those who openly deny basic Christian truths are allowed to continue as pastors.
