Avtryck av Andra Vatikankonciliet på Svenska kyrkan: Några perspektiv på en liturgisk föreställningsvärld

Abstract

The Second Vatican council made imprints on churches around the world, both by its discussions and texts, and by its perceived ethos. Concerning the Church of Sweden, research in this field still remains to be undertaken. The essay presented here is a preliminary inventory of liturgical issues related to the Mass in the Church of Sweden and a reminder of the imprints the council made on it. A number of perspectives are addressed. In the Church of Sweden the high church movement had been in contact with the international and ecumenical liturgical movement since the 1930s. Therefore, Vatican II became, from that perspective, a catalyst of ideas. For other groups and individuals, the council opened up new perspectives and broadened the understanding of liturgy. This was the case, not least, for the Liturgical Committee of the Church of Sweden. In 1968 the Swedish government appointed this committee on the request of the General Assembly of the church. Its work continued, funded by the state, up to the new liturgies were accepted and ratified by the assembly in 1986. The committee sought to overcome what was seen as narrow confessionalism and stiff monolithic liturgies in favor of ecumenically open, structurally
clear but flexible ways of worship. Thereby it also raised issues concerning the Second Vatican Council and its ethos, as is testified in the orders for the Mass from 1986.

The Second Vatican Council and the impact of the World Council of Churches General Assembly in Uppsala 1968, and later the
Lima Liturgy of 1982, mutually strengthened the influence of both and were frequently addressed together in liturgical discussions in Sweden. Not least in the high church movement, ideas of “Swedish liturgical tradition” were challenged by “reformed catholic” (“reformkatolsk”) conceptions of renewal. The first adhered to a restorationist position, purporting normativity of the liturgy from the Swedish 16th-century reformation movements in continuity with the Middle Ages. The reformed catholic understanding of liturgy was and is informed by the Vatican II and the liturgical renewal emanating from the same. Partially this can be understood as a clash of generations.

A diocesan mass order inspired by Vatican II, was that of the diocese of Västerås, where the bishop Sven Silén had been an observer at the council. He gathered a working group which presented a form of the mass that was very much in accordance with the new Roman Missal. The Mass became integrated by the way of liturgical experiments (ad experimentum) that was allowed by mandate of the Liturgical committee.

Lasting influences of the liturgy of the Mass in Sweden is its celebration versus populum and thereby the refurnishing of church buildings; receiving the host in the hand; intinction; three readings from the Scriptures; a Psalm between the Old Testament reading and the Epistle; a full eucharistic prayer (epiclesis, words of institution, anamnesis), as well as other changes known from other churches around the world. Indirect conciliar impact can be noted in the form mass orders inspired by liberation theology from Latin America, and influences from North American Roman-Catholic feminist theology. Lastly, the conciliar understanding of the relation between ecclesiology and liturgy had impact on the development in the Church of Sweden, especially by the notion of the Church as a “people of God”.