Church of Sweden Aid - Swedish National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation
History
After World War II many relief organizations were established to help the people in Europe to raise themselves up from the ruins. As there were twelve million European refugees who were Lutherans, the name given to this church related aid was Lutherhjälpen. The organization was formally the Swedish National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation. It was founded in Lund in southern Sweden in 1947. Through this church network a lot of aid was channeled to the reconstruction of Europe. From around 1960 more attention was given to Africa and southern Africa. In 1967 the director, Åke Kastlund, published a book after a trip to Namibia and South Africa in 1966: Travel through Black and White. The organization was at this time established as one of the biggest fund raising agencies for relief and development aid. Most of these efforts were coordinated with the Lutheran World Federation and World Council of Churches. The history of the organization has been published in Swedish: Björn Ryman, Lutherhjälpens första 50 år, 1997. There is an abbreviated English version, 125 pages, in Swedish Missiological Themes No 2, 1997 (may be ordered free).
The Church of Sweden Aid and Mission were located from 1978 in the same building in Uppsala and they had a common approach to the liberation movements such as ANC, SWAPO, ZANU and ZAPU. As a matter of fact most of their leadership visited this church office, the last one being Nelson Mandela in 1990. Before him Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe had been there in 1977 and 1978. In the photo archives there are photos from such occasions. Most of the photos though are from the field in Namibia and South Africa, where Swedish visitors have tried to depict everyday life, church life, liberation efforts during the hard years. Maybe these photos will be of most value in the future.
The Church of Sweden and other churches in Sweden, particularly the youth, were in the forefront of the anti-apartheid struggle. Most of these efforts were made ecumenically or in different networks. The Christian Council of Sweden led the lobbying for a stop to investments in South Africa and Namibia. The Archbishop of Sweden, Olof Sundby, attended in 1975 the shareholder´s annual meeting of ASEA, now ABB, Sweden´s biggest manufacturer, and demanded that the industrialists stopped investments in southern Africa. This led to much debate and publicity.
From 1976 Lutherhjälpen supported the Asingeni Fund of SACC and much correspondence between the general secretaries concerns this secret fund. Desmond Tutu visited Sweden in 1979 and returned almost every year. There are several photos of him and his colleagues.
In 1973 the Annual Meeting of Lutherhjälpen was visited by Bishop Auala and his successor Kleopas Dumeni. Official correspondence has been kept from those days. In the preserved telexes much information was disseminated via the telex machine in Oniipa to Sweden and then made into press releases about shootings and harassments. Much of the correspondence concerns the printing press at Oniipa. As far as Namibia is concerned Lutherhjälpen is one of few organizations in Sweden in possession of so much information from Namibia during the struggle for freedom.
The biggest official church delegation visited Stockholm-Uppsala on the first Sunday of advent in 1985, when they also met the Foreign Minister and the Foreign Relations Committee. This was a high point in the advocacy for Namibia. As far as aid is concerned its high point was at Independence, when approximately 100 million Swedish crowns was spent on various refugee and reconstruction projects, mostly via the 3 R committee. In the following years less and less attention was given to Namibia, which is also seen in the materials in the archive. The high point of involvement was from 1966-1993, which also manifests itself in the archival material.
List of Chairmen and Directors of Lutherhjälpen:
Ryman, Björn Lutherhjälpen: Church of Sweden Aid 1947-1997, p. 197-198
Chairmen (bishops)
1947-56 Anders Nygren
1956-63 Elis Malmeström
1963-72 Bo Giertz
1972-78 Olof Sundby
1978-86 Helge Brattgård
1986-92 Henrik Svenungsson
1992-95 Tord Harlin
Directors
1947-56 Daniel Cederberg
1956-70 Åke Kastlund
1970-79 Ebbe Arvidsson
1979-85 Henrik Svenungsson
1985-89 Thorsten Månsson
1989-96 Margaretha Ringström
In the following series the most relevant documents concerning the liberation struggle of Namibia and South Africa are to be found. The codes refer to the archive catalog. Numbers attached to the code after the colon indicate the volume number.
Repository
Archives of the Church of Sweden Central Office
[Kyrkokansliets arkiv]
SE-751 70 Uppsala
Sweden
Visiting address: Sysslomansgatan 31, Uppsala
Telephone: +46 (0)18 16 95 00
Fax: +46 18 16 96 40
E-mail: kyrkokansliets.arkiv@svenskakyrkan.se
http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/
External link, opens in new window.
Address
Lutherhjälpen - Svenska Kyrkan:
Sysslomansgatan 4, Uppsala
SE-751 70 Uppsala
Sweden
Telephone: +46 18 16 95 00
E-mail: lutherhjalpen@svenskakyrkan.se
http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/lutherhjalpen/
Country: Sweden
Period: 1947-1990
Keywords:
Church of Sweden Aid Lutherhjälpen Swedish National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation Namibia South Africa History Anti-apartheid movements Solidarity movements Liberation organizations Anti-racism movements Religious organizations Religious missions Missionaries Christianity World Council of Churches ANC SWAPO ZANU ZAPU Nelson Mandela Joshua Nkomo Robert Mugabe Olof Sundby ASEA ABB Lutherhjälpen Desmond Tutu