Church of Sweden

Church of Sweden

Classification	Protestant
Orientation	Lutheranism
Polity	Episcopal
Primate	Archbishop of Uppsala
Associations	Lutheran World Federation, World Council of Churches, Conference of European Churches, Porvoo Communion
Region	Sweden
Founder	King Gustav I of Sweden
Origin	1536/1593
Separated from	Roman Catholic Church in Sweden
Separations	Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
Congregations	3,500 churches
Members	6,225,091 baptized members (63.2%) (2015)

The Church of Sweden (Swedish: Svenska kyrkan) is the largest Christian church in Sweden.

It is the largest Lutheran denomination in Europe and the second-largest in the world after the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, as well as the third-largest Protestant body in Europe after the Church of England and the Evangelical Church in Germany. A member of the Porvoo Communion, the Church professes the Lutheran branch of Christianity. It is composed of thirteen dioceses, divided into parishes. It is an open national church which, working with a democratic organisation and through the ministry of the church, covers the whole nation. The Primate of the Church of Sweden is the Archbishop of Uppsala — currently Antje Jackelén, Sweden's first female archbishop. Today, the Church of Sweden is an Evangelical Lutheran church. 6.2 million people are members of the Church of Sweden.

It is liturgically and theologically "high church", having retained priests, vestments, and the Mass during the Swedish Reformation. In common with other Evangelical Lutheran churches (particularly in the Nordic and Baltic states), the Church of Sweden maintains the historical episcopate. Some Lutheran churches have congregational polity or modified episcopal polity without Apostolic succession, but the historic episcopate is maintained in Sweden and the other Lutheran nations of the Porvoo Communion.