The Parish Union of Helsinki in a nutshell

The Parish Union of Helsinki is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland – The “Church” in Helsinki. It is a Christian community that lives and works to promote community and harmony with God, with the neighbours and environment.

The Parish Union of Helsinki 

• is a community of members whose focal point is celebrating mass and divine service.
• works to promote the spiritual growth of members, other people living in Helsinki or just visiting, as well as providing the ingredients for the individual to develop personal values and ethics.
• serves to remind us of our community responsibility and gives aid in places that aren’t usually reached by aid.
• cooperates with other churches and various bodies in society.

The parishes of the Parish Union of Helsinki

• each have their own activities, with a local perspective.
• cooperate with each other and also regionally and within the city as a whole.
• comprise 24 Finnish and 3 Swedish parishes.

Units common to all parishes of the Parish Union of Helsinki

• are responsible for statutory economic functions
• create the prerequisites for parish work and activities by processing matters concerning personnel, real estate, the parish register, IT, legal affairs and PR etc.
• carry out special assignments for the parishes.

Members

Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland are parishioners in the local parish. At the end of 2008, the Helsinki parishes had 375659 parishioners, corresponding to 68 per cent of the population of Helsinki. 349425 are members of Finnish parishes and 26 234 members of Swedish parishes. There are great differences in size between the parishes. The biggest parish, Malmi, has more than 60 000 parishioners, whereas the smallest, Kulosaari, has just over 2 200.

Work and activities

Church life is very much focused on parish activities. The framework consists of divine service and prayers, church ceremonies, children’s activities and youth work as well as various kinds of aid for the needy, both locally and internationally. Each week there are hundreds of very different activities arranged by parishes (linkki seurakuntien tapahtumiin esim. K&k:n sivuille), anything from small discussion groups to high class concerts.

The parishes have chosen to take care of certain work together. This category includes family counselling, hospital counselling and various kinds of educational work and aid work. As a rule, public relations are also handled on a cooperative basis. The Parish Union of Helsinki has its own newspaper, Kirkko ja kaupunki and a common website (which you now read).