Interreligiösa gruppers samarbete med kommuner i Sverige

Abstract

In Swedish contemporary society we nd ongoing processes of secularization and the idea of secularism be- ing challenged by a growing religious plurality in society. e overall purpose of this article is to highlight what happens when religion in a secularized and secular society enter into the public sphere as a result of inter-religious groups’ collaboration with local authorities. is is done through interviews and observations of three inter-religious groups meetings during 2010 and 2011. e collaboration between the inter-religious groups and the local authorities were initiated as a result of perceived problems of integration in the society and aims to include religious communities in society which may change the ongoing processes of seculariza- tion. One of the major problems with the collaborations was related to which religious community could be included by reasons of economic resources, access to personnel and premises and the acceptance and establishment in society.

Routes and relations in Scandinavian interfaith forums: Governance of religious diversity by states and majority churches

“…10 To obtain state grants from The Swedish Authority for Government Support to Faith [Myndigheten för statsbidrag till trossamfund, in short SAG], religious associations are additionally compelled to uphold and strengthen 'the fundamental values on which society is based, to be stable, and have their "own vitality"'. 11 SAG was established in 2000 as a direct response to the separation between the state and the majority church but, 12 (Nordin, 2014).…”

“…If not initiated and run by the Church of Sweden, it is often part of interfaith initiatives at the local level. However, the imbalance between the participating forums' degree of establishment, organisational form, leadership maintenance, financial and other resources, and access to facilities affect and complicate cooperation between them (Nordin, 2014(Nordin, , 2017a. For example, in most of the studied local interfaith initiatives the representatives from the majority church participated as part of their job, while the representatives from other religious denominations did so on a nonprofessional basis.…”

“…13 However, The Swedish Interreligious Council (Sveriges interreligiösa råd, in short: SIC) did not receive any financial support from the state until 2015. 14 As a consequence of the Swedish development, the religious funding system frequently leads to the inclusion of primarily SAG grant-holding organisations into various interfaith forums as these forums require an ability to guarantee the seriousness of the included associations (Nordin, 2014).…”