"Politiikka on kirkossa" : Keskustapuolueen kirkkopoliittisten tavoitteiden muotoutuminen vuosina 1966–1978

This study in church history deals with the formation of aims in the church politics of the Centre Party during a period of extensive politicisation in Finnish society – 1966 to 1978. The focus is on the processes of creating political input within the party organisation. The most important source material consists of the records of the highest party organs as well as material from the party office and the party’s committee for church politics. In the late 1960s, at a time of leftist radicalism in Finnish society, issues concerning the Church were seldom dealt with in the highest party organs, even though informal discussion took place within the party. This phase was followed by a conservative reaction in society during the 1970s. The rightist trend as well as the ongoing politicisation process substantially strengthened the role of church politics in the party. An aim of great importance was to prevent those supporters who belonged to the Lutheran revival movements from moving into the Finnish Christian League. Therefore it became increasingly important to prove that the Centre Party was defending the Church as well as so-called Christian values in state politics, e.g., by advocating religious instruction in schools. The Centre Party also defended the independence and legal status of the Church, at the same time positioning itself against Finland’s Social Democratic Party. Many party members were of the opinion that the church politics should have been about defending the Church and Christian values in state politics instead of defending the proportional share of the party’s seats in the ecclesiastical decision-making system. Nevertheless, the struggle for hegemony between the Centre Party and the Social Democrats was reflected in the Evangelical Lutheran Church particularly since 1973. Thus the aims of church politics were increasingly directed towards ecclesiastical elections and appointments in the 1970s. To justify its activities in church elections, the party stressed that it was not politicising the Church. To the contrary, it was asserted that the church leaders themselves had politicised the Church by favouring the Social Democrats. These alleged efforts to affiliate the Church with one political party were strictly condemned in the Centre Party. But when it came to the political parties’ activity in church elections, opinions diverged. Generally, the issues of church politics resembled those of the party’s trade union politics in the 1970s.

Valoa itään? : Kansanlähetys ja Neuvostoliitto 1967-1973

Light to the East? The Finnish Lutheran Mission and the Soviet Union 1967 1973 The Cold War affected the lives of Christian churches, especially in Europe. Besides the official ecumenical relations between east and west, there existed unofficial activity from west to east, such as smuggling Bibles and distributing information about the severe condition of human rights in the USSR. This study examines this kind of unofficial activity originating in Finland. It especially concentrates on the missionary work to the Soviet Union done by the Finnish Lutheran Mission (FLM, Suomen Evankelisluterilainen Kansanlähetys) founded in 1967. The work for Eastern Europe was organised through the Department for the Slavic Missions. FLM was founded within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, but it was not connected to the church on an organisational level. In addition to the strong emphasis on the Lutheran confession, FLM presented evangelical theology. The fundamental work of the Department for the Slavic Missions was to organise the smuggling of Bibles and other Christian literature to the Soviet Union and other countries behind the iron curtain. They also financed several Christian radio programmes produced and aired mainly by the international Trans World Radio. The Department diversified its activity to humanitarian help by distributing material help such as clothes and shoes to the unregistered evangelical and baptist groups, which were called the underground churches . In Finland the Department focused on information services. It published its own magazine, Valoa idässä (Light in the East), 5 to 6 times per year. Through the magazine and by distributing samizdat material received from the unregistered Christian groups, it discussed and reported the violations of human rights in the Soviet Union, especially when the unregistered Christian groups were considered the victims. The resistance against the Soviet Union was not as much political but religious: the staff of the Department were religious and revivalist young people who thought, for instance, that communism was in some way an apocalyptic world power revealed in the Bible. Smuggling Bibles was discussed widely in the Finnish media and even in parliament and the Finnish Security Police (SUPO, Suojelupoliisi) and in the Lutheran Church. From the church s point of view, this kind of missionary work was understandable but bothersome. Through their ecumenical connections, the bishops knew the critical situation of churches behind the iron curtain very well, but wanted to act diplomatically and cautiously to prevent causing harm to ecumenical or political relations. The leftist media and members of parliament especially accused the work of the Department of being illegal and endangering relations between Finland and the Soviet Union. SUPO did not consider the work of the Department as illegal activity or as a threat to Finnish national security.

Ernest Hirsch Collection 1965-1966

Correspondence and clipping referring to contribution of 'Action Atonement' to build a synagogue in Villeurbanne.

Silva Fennica Vol. 7, 1973.

Julkaistu Silva Fennica Vol. 8(1) -numeron liitteenä.

Vesilaitosten veden laatu vuonna 1973

Water quality in water utilities in 1973.

Vesistöjen veden laadun muutoksista vuosina 1962-1973

Engl. summary: Changes in water quality in Finnish lakes and rivers 1962-1973

Uutta, vanhaa ja lainattua : Tampereen Kaupunkilähetyksen kristillissosiaalisen työn asemoituminen hyvinvointivaltion rakentumisessa vuosina 1939−1973

The main purpose of this study was to provide a full account of the Christian social work carried out at the Tampere City Mission (TCM) as well as the Missions sphere of operations from the Second World War to the early 1970s, comprising a period of significant change. The study consists of charting the processes of change and connections within the activities of the TCM and how examining these were linked to the general tendencies of the period, in lay work, social work, professionalization and the representation of gender. The positioning of the activities is described on the basis of these tendencies. The main sources for the study were the archives of the Mission, for example the minutes of meetings, correspondences as well as annual reports, and the archives of its partners, such as the City of Tampere, the Evangelical Lutheran parishes of Tampere and the State Welfare Administration. The archives of the Helsinki, Turku and Stockholm Missions supplied comparison reference and other material. In particular, social welfare and Christian social work technical journals of were used as printed sources. The principal method used was the genetic method of historiology. The research subject was also evaluated from the point of view of third sector research in addition to that of professionalization studies and gender studies. By the beginning of the research period, the TCM had turned more and more dedicatedly into a multipurpose social service organization maintaining social services such as old people s homes and children´s homes. This development continued, even though new areas of activity emerged and older ones fell into disuse. Social innovations sprang up, marriage counseling being one of them. On the national level, the TCM pioneered the provision of sheltered industrial work for intellectually disabled persons as well as housing services for them. As new activities were initiated, they overlapped with the established ones, and the TCM handed some of its child protection functions over to the municipality, in accordance with the current adaptation theory. The use of its own property to produce ever-changing social services may be the reason why the association s work continued on with vitality. Functional networks and political aid in the field of social services also bolstered the association. As in other Nordic countries, nonprofit organizations served as partners rather than competitors, with the State establishing institutional welfare arrangements. In the 1960s the municipal takeover of social services impacted the TCM activities. Rules for government subsidies and municipal allowances were not well established; hence these funds were not easily available, making improvements difficult. The TCM was a community in which women had a relatively strong position and an opportunity to make a difference. Female staff were reasonably equal to men, and women worked as heads of a several institutions. Care work employed a number of men, which went against the traditional segregation of labour between the sexes. The TCM s operations were from early on very professionalized, and were developed with particular care. Keywords: Christian social work, third sector, professionalization, gender

Teología, 1966, Tomo IV/1 nº 8 (número completo)

La Comunión de vida con Dios en la Iglesia (Capítulos V, VII y VIII) / Rafael A. Tello -- La Jerarquía: una potestad al servicio de la Iglesia (Capítulo III) / Carmelo J. Giaquinta -- El Laicado en la Iglesia (capítulo IV) / Pedro Geltman -- La vida religiosa en la Constitución “Lumen Gentium” (Capítulo VI) / Domingo Basso -- Crónica de la Facultad (enero-marzo 1966) -- Bibliografía