30 August 2025

Recently, the Lutheran Church in Sweden removed the church at Kiruna and relocated it three miles away from its original site. As it happens, this was part of the relocation of the whole community due to the expansion of the Kiruna mine.

The church weighed 672 tons and it took two days for it to be transported to its new location. It was featured in Sweden as ‘slow television’. It was consecrated in 1912 and in 2001 it was voted by the Swedish population as the most popular pre-1950 building in the country.

Interestingly, the design resembles Sami huts. They belonged to the Sami people who live in the northern regions of Scandinavia. This used to be referred to as ‘Lapland’ but not any more. The Sami people traditionally herded reindeer and were semi-nomadic. For their church to move doesn’t seem so strange!

The Lutheran Church  in Sweden like the Church of England and the Church of Scotland has suffered a severe loss of members – some 80,000 every year. Like our kirks, there is pressure to find other uses for the buildings to justify their existence.

The life of the church has been monetised. If it doesn’t pay its way or  draw income from the community to justify its existence then it is not viable. This is in contrast with the original purpose of the church building –  to gather people together around the Word of God for praise, prayer and preaching.

A  business model  dominates. But the Word, the Sacraments, a place apart  are all  beyond price. If this model characterised our thinking,  would our witness be more effective?  ‘It is with great reverence that we have undertaken this project,’ said the manager of the removal project. ‘It’s not just any building – it’s a church.’