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• Member churches
• Four Church Families
• Contact

The concept of church families offers a way to acknowledge each other and to the world at large the different traditions and the close fellowship that exists within each family. The church families also form the basis for representation in the decision-making bodies of the Council.

The Lutheran church family has about 7.6 million members in Sweden, ie. more than 80% of the population. There are around 60 million Lutheran believers throughout the world. The Church of Sweden is an open national church. Since the Reformation of the 16th century, the Church of Sweden is Evangelical-Lutheran. From the year 2000, the Church of Sweden is legally separated from the State.

The Catholic church family has about 165,000 members in Sweden. They all belong to the Catholic diocese of Stockholm with two bishops and forty local churches. The Catholic Church existed in Sweden during the middle ages and re-emerged towards the end of the eighteenth century. The Catholic Church today has a worldwide membership of about one billion members with a presence on all continents and spiritual centre in Rome.

The Free church family in Sweden has about 250,000 members although there are almost double that figure involved in the churches' activities. The Free churches belong to different confessional families for example Baptists, Methodists, Reformed, Pentecostal etc.- with a total world membership of about 400 million. Most of the Free Church denominations in Sweden began during the nineteenth century when an evangelical revival broke out. The Swedish Free church family has many branches, often quite different, but united in the common bond of the necessity of a personal faith. The Swedish Free Church Council coordinates the Free Churches and is integrated in the Christian Council of Sweden.

The Orthodox church family has almost 100,000 believers in Sweden. It is estimated to number about 300 million worldwide. This church family has existed in Sweden since the 17th century and is divided into two groups, the Byzantine Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox churches. These churches are especially noted for their liturgical expression and prayer rather than for creeds.