Gunnar Rosendal i kyrkopolitiken : Europeiska perspektiv på kyrklig förnyelse

Författare

Yvonne Maria Werner

Redaktör

Vivi-Ann Grönqvist

Summary, in Swedish

This article deals with Gunnar Rosendal within church politics in a European perspective. The term church politics is here used in a broad sense, referring to the church’s management of internal problems and conflicts as well as the political strategies of the church in its relation to state and society.

In my study I focus on three fields that in various ways got church political consequences or reflect church political questions. The first field is the Catholic inspired liturgical renewal that Rosendal successively introduced in his parish in Osby in the diocese of Lund in the 1930s and 1940s. Many were enthusiastic for this liturgically rich worship. But it also provoked opposition, and the church authorities repeatedly warned him from going to far by introducing foreign or un-evangelical practices.
Rosendal liturgical efforts, which were inspired by the liturgical movement within the Catholic Church, were closely connected with his ecumenical commitment. This is the second field of my study. Here special intention is given on the one hand to Rosendal’s engagement for the week of prayer for Christian unity and his efforts to get this practice accepted in the Church of Sweden, and on the other hand to his ecumenical contacts with representatives from the Catholic Church in Sweden and abroad. The fact that the then Roman Magisterium refused out of hand all ecumenical co-operations with other Christian Churches and denominations makes these contacts especially interesting. Rosendal’s point of departure was that all churches with apostolic succession and a valid ministry were part of the one Church of Christ, and he regarded the Church of Sweden as having an important role to play in the work for Christian unity. His attempt to induce the Swedish bishops to give official approbation to this prayer week for unity failed, however. That the Catholic Church used this prayer initiative as a strategy to propagate for conversion to the Catholic faith made several Swedish bishops and leading church officials sceptical to the whole idea, and in the eyes of many Lutherans Rosendal appeared as a protagonist for Roman interests. It is therefore interesting to note that Rosendal, despite his Catholic sympathies, was very critical against the strongly centralised Roman church system and the official Roman ecclesiology and he resolutely refused all Catholic proposals to convert to the Catholic Church.

The third field of my study is about Rosendal and the church-related ”woman questions”. After the Second World War the idea of women priests was brought to the fore, especially after the ordination of women in Denmark in 1948. Rosendal, referring to church tradition, rejected the possibility of a ministry for women. He was, however, not against women emancipation, and he showed understanding for women, who chose to live without husband and children. In 1954 he tried to introduce convent life in Sweden by receiving vows from a Swedish woman. This caused great commotion, and Rosendal got a sharp reprimand from the chapter of Lund, which decided to put him under observation for one year.

For Rosendal this was a hard trial, and as fours years later the Swedish Synod decided to open the ministry for women, he reflected on leaving the Church of Sweden. The reason was his fear that this decision would affect the validity of the ministry and destroy the catholicity of the Church of Sweden. But, encouraged by his Anglican and Catholic friends, he decided to remain at his post. At this time, however, Rosendal’s position in the high church movement had already weakened, and he played no decisive role in the now created ”confessional front” which had now been created to defend the faith and doctrine of the Church.

In order to put Rosendal in a broader context, I make comparisons with church political controversies within the Catholic Church, foremost the conflict on the liturgical reform carried out after the Second Vatican Council and the opposition that it provoked. In the same way as Rosendal and the Swedish high church movement rejected the decision to ordinate women, the Catholic traditionalist which was now organized movement repudiated the theological and liturgical reorientation initiated by the Council. Both groups regarded it a as duty to oppose the church authorities in order to defend what they saw as unchangeable church doctrine and tradition. They wanted to save the Church against the destroying effects of cultural moderni-sation, but at the same time they reacted in a way that was typically modern. Today, the Swedish high church movement is much marginalised, but many of the liturgical ideas of Gunnar Rosendal have no doubt contributed to the development towards a more plentiful liturgical life within the Church of Sweden.

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