Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (Suomen evankelis-luterilainen kirkko; Evangelisk-lutherska kyrkan i Finland) is a national church of Finland. It is part of the Lutheran branch of Christianity. The church has a legal position as a national church in the country, along with the Orthodox Church of Finland. The church is a member of the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches. It is also a member of the Porvoo Communion and is actively involved in ecumenical relations. With 3.6 million members , the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is one of the largest Lutheran churches in the world. It is Finland's largest religious body; at the end of 2022, 65.2% of Finns were members of the church. The current head of the Church is Tapio Luoma, Archbishop of Turku, who succeeded Kari Mäkinen on 3 June 2018. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland traces its lineage to the medieval Diocese of Turku, which coincides geographically with present-day Finland. Christianity was introduced to Finland slowly: the first signs of the Christian faith being found in burial sites dated to the 9th century. Based on etymological evidence, it seems that its very first influences came to present-day Finland from the Eastern Christian tradition. Archaeological evidence shows that by the middle 12th century, Christianity was dominant in the region around present-day Turku. One legend recounts a crusade dated around 1054, but no contemporary or archaeological evidence backs the story. Another legend is that the martyr-bishop St. Henry founded the Finnish Church, but that is also most likely fictional. The introduction of Christianity was mostly a peaceful, slow process contemporaneous with the gradual integration with Sweden that culminated in the Sweden-Finland union. The first bishop, whose name was Thomas, lived in the first half of the 13th century. Thomas was granted resignation by Pope Innocent IV on 21 February 1245. According to the pope, Thomas had admitted committing several felonies, such as torturing a man to death, and forging a papal letter.