Rum och rymd för Ökenmässan i Svenska kyrkan?

Abstract

The so-called Desert Mass (Ökenmässan) has been celebrated in the Church of Sweden since the end of the 1990s in accordance with the Church Service Book (Den svenska kyrkohandboken) from 1986. Born out of a vibrant theological, liturgical and musical creativity, the Desert Mass was one of many new Eucharistic liturgies that were incorporated into the life of local Lutheran congregations in Sweden. However, the newly adopted Church Service Book (Kyrkohandbok för Svenska kyrkan) in 2017 gave rise to a theological discussion on the content, contours, and limitations of contemporary Lutheran worship services.

Every single church service reflects and embodies the doctrine and teaching of the church. Therefore, it is crucial to critically analyse what is said, heard, or performed within a worshipping community. As its departure point, this article takes the formal decision made by the Chapter of the Diocese of Linköping in 2022, not to approve the request from a local congregation (Vadstena) to celebrate the Desert Mass. The article shows how the celebration of the Desert Mass in a local congregation always is linked to a broader tapestry in which theology, liturgy, ecumenical relations, and church law are tightly knit together.