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Personal and Ecclesiastic Renewal – The Church of Sweden and the Vadstena Meetings 1943–1985.

In this study, I examine the Vadstena Meetings for Personal and Ecclesiastic Renewal in order to contribute to the understanding of the Church of Sweden during the Cold War era. The primary sources are archives: the Vadstena Meetings archive in Linköping and certain personal archives.

After the first two chapters, Introduction and Historical background, the study is chronologically organised. In the two following chapters, three and four, I focus on the meetings first phase, 1943 and 1945-46. The fifth chapter analyses an expansive era, 1947-59, when meetings were held on several places. In chapter six I examine the last phase of the meetings, 1960-85, characterised by stagnation and withdrawal. Chapter seven concludes the study.

The Vadstena Meetings were voluntarily organised meetings, formally detached from, but within the framework of Church of Sweden. Initiators and organisers were prominent within the Church and active contributors were bishops, directors and well-known clergy. Women constituted the majority of the attending participants.

As a point of departure for the analysis of the meetings a comprehensive account of the meetings is given as to the organisers, contributors, participants and their programmes.  The organisation has been illustrated by applying Judith Sharken Simons model in five stages of a life cycle of non-profit organisations: Imagine and Inspire, Found and Frame, Ground and Grow, Produce and Sustain and, finally, Review and Renew.

The Vadstena Meetings comprised both continuity and change with a continued focus on personal renewal. They provide an example of consensus aspiration and endeavour to bring together fractions within the Church of Sweden without compromising the essence of different groupings. The most prominent groupings at the time of consolidation of the Vadstena Meetings were the High Church movement and the Oxford Group Movement.

Although the idea and aspiration for amplitude continued well into the late 1950s, the Vadstena Meetings became more and more conform. By following the historical progress of the Meetings and putting them into context, I show how they reflect the development and change within society and the Church of Sweden. Corresponding to the growing emphasis on individual participation in civil society the Vadstena Meetings illustrate the changing and expanding possibilities for individuals to influence the Church.