Starting next week, Sweden will be free of Covid restrictions. Churches are also no longer required to take measures against the virus. Pastors and churchgoers are happy. However, some expect that normalisation will take some time.
Vaccine passes are no longer required for attending a church service. Drinking coffee after the sermon is allowed again. However, the Immanuel Church in Malmö announces already that hand alcohol will remain in the church, Dagen reports. Another church, the Bethlehem Church in Sundsvall, expects people to keep distance from each other for a while.
Bodil Eriksson, pastor of the Bethlehem Church, says to Dagen that the number of people allowed to attend the service will slowly increase. She does not think the church will be fully open at once. “The biggest difference seen immediately is that the church will serve coffee after the service again. But it will also be nice that we do not have to count people in church anymore.”
Niclas Ljung, pastor and director of the Immanuel Church, tells Dagen that the congregation will not welcome all members next Sunday. Churchgoers will still have to use the hand alcohol located at the door. Handshakes are discouraged, and social distancing is still in force. The main difference for churchgoers of the Immanuel Church is that they no longer have to register when they want to attend a service.
Ljung, however, believes that it will take till autumn before people dare to return to church. On the other hand, he is happy that members can meet physically again. Ljung: “It is difficult to be a congregation without being allowed to gather.”
“Tired of waiting”
Members of the Immanuel Church in Stockholm are delighted about the re-opening of the churches, Dagen reports. “I really hope that this is the last time I have to show this”, says one of the churchgoers, referring to the vaccine passport.
Dagen also talked to Viola Engström, who says she is “so tired of waiting.” “It is nice that church opens up now.”
Pastor Claes-Göran Ydrefors, temporary director of the church, says that many church members have longed for social activities. At the same time, he emphasizes that the pandemic is not over yet. He believes that a certain amount of caution will remain.
Pastor Esther Kazen started her ministry during the pandemic. “I long most to meet the Immanuel Church also post-pandemic”, she says.
