a. Lehtonen supports the emerging Finnish high church movement Besides his many duties as Archbishop’s Secretary, Harjunpää found time to put in practice some of his ‘cherished ecclesiastical visions’. The first great public occasion influenced by Harjunpää’s historical-liturgical high church tendencies came when the celebration of St Henry, the patron of Finland and an Englishman, was revived. This took place on the Feast of St Henry, 19 January 1946 with a special liturgical vespers at Turku Cathedral.154
Harjunpää was greatly supported by Lehtonen, who led the service with Dean Ahtola and Harjunpää himself. The vespers included the collect of St Henry from the Mikael Agricola Prayer Book, the first cautiously reformed liturgy in Finnish, and the music was of high quality, with traditional Finn-ish liturgical music sung by the Auran Laulu choir, whose director F. Isacs-son had composed organ pieces for the occasion.155 The careful and thor-ough planning suggests that Lehtonen and Harjunpää hoped to make the vespers a first class event.
Lehtonen had done the preliminary work for the occasion as early as 1925, when he had published a book on vespers called “Vesperale”. This combined a historical study of liturgical developments with practical in-structions concerning the organising of vespers with examples. The book placed special emphasis on evensong in the Church of England and the revival of vespers in the Continental protestant churches in the 19th cen-tury.156 His election as Archbishop and his appointment of Harjunpää, an able church musician and liturgical scholar, thus provided Lehtonen with an opportunity further to develop the liturgical life of his diocese along evangelical catholic lines. The connection with contemporary Anglicanism was obvious: the focus on the Mikael Agricola Prayer Book brings to mind the Church of England Prayer Book catholic ethos.
Lehtonen preached on the Great Commission, reminding the congrega-tion that they were celebrating the foundacongrega-tion of the Church of Finland, the child of the missionary activities of St Henry and those who preceded
Hjä 4/25.1.1946 Piispa Henrikin muistoa vietetty Turussa.
Hjä 4/25.1.1946 Piispa Henrikin muistoa vietetty Turussa.
Lehtonen 1925.
him. The sermon was later published under the title “The Mission of the Church” and thus received a wider audience.157
The sermon drew together many themes close to Lehtonen’s heart. One of them was a clear adaptation from the Swedish young church movement’s theology of his youth: through baptism and teaching, he wanted to make the Finnish people Christian.158 By this he did not imply a rude marriage of Christianity with political nationalism, but rather the incorporation in Christendom of the nation through faith: “Christian mission throughout the centuries led to the point where all Finns had the opportunity to come to personal Christian faith. The Finnish people were welcomed into the one, holy, apostolic Church.”159 Lehtonen’s preaching had a strong empha-sis on apostolicity along evangelical catholic lines. What distinguished his theology was his combining of a catholic emphasis on ecclesiology and lit-urgy with an evangelical fervour for mission and conversion at home and abroad.
However, there was also something deeply political in Lehtonen’s gloomy reading of the present situation. This emerges in his strong advocacy of in-fant baptism:
Baptism is adaptation to the family of God, to the holy catholic Church. It is a door through which one enters the Church universal. It is transformation from the dominion of darkness into the light of Christ. It is an outward act for the whole nation, in which the Lord makes disciples for Himself. -- Today I urge you: let us gladly baptise the children of Finland into this fellowship. There may come a time, when there are only two great frontiers in the world: those who confess the name of Christ and those who reject Him. Let us gladly and gratefully baptise the infants of our nation into the fellowship of the same family of God to which we have belonged from our own infancy. Baptism will bring them into the blessed fellowship.0
There is little room for doubt that the two frontiers Lehtonen envisaged were international Christendom and atheistic communism. The catholicity of the Church and contacts with the rest of Christendom played a major role in Lehtonen’s assessment of the world situation: as it had been during the war, Finland was still for him a western Christian bastion against the communist east.
Hjä 4/25.1.1946 Piispa Henrikin muistoa vietetty Turussa; Lehtonen 1947, 62.
Lehtonen 1947, 63; Ryman2005a, 53-54.
Lehtonen 1947, 63.
0 Lehtonen 1947, 67-68.
However, these were political views of a kind which were usually kept strictly out of public discussion. Thus, the St Henry’s vespers was present-ed to the general church going public as a festal celebration, and receivpresent-ed promisingly good coverage in the local Christian Newspaper Herättäjä.
Herättäjä advertised the service beforehand, explaining that “it is hoped to revive these feasts in order to establish a tradition for future generations.”161 Afterwards, there was a detailed report concluding with the hope “that today’s congregations might [know] of the life and work of such central men in our Church’s history as Bishop Henry and Bishop Mikael Agri-cola. It would be fitting, at least here in western Finland, that congregations would annually gather in their temples to remember the blessed life work of these men.”162 At least someone in the traditionally pietistic Herättäjä had completely understood the intent of Lehtonen and Harjunpää, and gave it whole-hearted support.
However, Harjunpää was quite able to work without the immediate sup-port of the Archbishop in educating his clergy colleagues. He was one of the lecturers in the Clergy Summer Course on ecclesiology. The course was organised by the Finnish Clergy Union together with the editors of the Finnish theological review, Vartija, at the Institute of Parish Life in Järven-pää from 8 to 12 July1946.163 The main lecturer was the Rev. Eric Nilsson from the Church of Sweden, who placed particular emphasis on liturgical and devotional revival and the centrality of the Eucharist: a theme no less important for the Church of England at the time. Nilsson was supported by another Swedish lecturer, the Rev. Sven Franzén, who spoke about the application of these ideas in parish work.164
The other lecturers were Finns, who concentrated for the most part on traditional Finnish Lutheran topics. The Rev. Erkki Kansanaho lectured on “Pietism and Lutheranism” and the Rev. Aimo Nikolainen on “Ceasar or God”, while the new Finnish folk church vision was presented by the Rev. Osmo Alaja and the Rev. Erkki Niinivaara. Harjunpää, with his topics
“The Attempts for Unity between the Churches today” and “What is the Anglican Church?” certainly stood out from the other Finns. In his lecture
Hjä 3/18.1.1946 Vanhoja kirkollisia muistoja vaalimaan.
Hjä 4/25.1.1946 Piispa Henrikin muistoa vietetty Turussa.
KA SKPL 2 Minutes of the Central Committee 5.4.1946 §4; 31.5.1946 §3.
Kmaa 47/12.17.1946 Papiston kesäkurssit 8-12.7.46 Seurakuntaopistossa Järvenpääs-sä.
on Anglicanism, Harjunpää emphasized the distinctiveness of Anglicanism despite the Roman Catholic and Lutheran elements in it, as Kotimaa put it.165
Kotimaa briefly reported that the lectures by the Swedish visitors
“prompted a lively discussion concerning especially the issues of the Eucha-rist and the raising of liturgy from its present degradation.”166 It is safe to as-sume that a revival of parish work along the lines of the Swedish high church tradition gained at least some support among the participants. Harjunpää’s churchmanship was much closer to that of the Swedish lecturers, whose ap-proach in large measure coincided with what he was trying to achieve in his own work, than it was to that of his average Finnish colleague.
This is underlined by the fact that this summer course on ecclesiology with an overtly high church emphasis remained an isolated event in the life of the Finnish Clergy Union. The Union continued to have links with the Church of Sweden, the other Nordic Lutheran Churches and the wider Lutheran world, but these links were in the mainstream, rather than high church. No attempts were made to foster links with the Church of Eng-land or other Anglican Churches.167 Anglican relations were attended to by Lehtonen, who took no active part in the life of the Union, which afforded an indication of the interests of the active mainstream clergy.
However, the Archdiocese of Turku had its own avenues and the fol-lowing autumn saw another attempt at ecclesiastical education. The pro-gramme of the Clergy Union course was adapted, at least in part, becoming
“the Scientific Lecture Days of the Archdiocese of Turku”. This took place in Turku from 29 to 31 October 1946 and gathered over 150 clergy from across the diocese and beyond. The Lecture Days had the same ecclesiologi-cal theme, with Harjunpää delivering a lecture on “the Church according to the Anglican understanding”.168
Archbishop Lehtonen lectured on the renaissance of liturgical life. He emphasized the enduring charismatic inspiration of the liturgical and insti-tutional life of the Church. Without this inspiration, spiritual expressions would have passed away; through it, they had been handed to successive generations in liturgical forms. Using one of his favourite proverbs support
Kmaa 47/12.17.1946 Papiston kesäkurssit 8-12.7.46 Seurakuntaopistossa Järvenpäässä.
Kmaa 47/12.17.1946 Papiston kesäkurssit 8-12.7.46 Seurakuntaopistossa Järvenpäässä.
KA SKPL 2 Minutes.
Hjä 44/1.11.1946 Puolentoista sataa pappia koolla Turun tieteellisillä luentokursseilla.
custom and it will support you, he promoted the renaissance of liturgical and sacramental life according to the experience of the Church of England:
In this respect, we need a renaissance of liturgical life. Our standards are declining.
There is an attempt to replace the traditional ecclesiastical forms of worship with oc-casional preaching meetings of all kinds. This tendency can be observed at the heart of worship, the Eucharist. Frequent communicating at the Eucharist is in decline.
There may be many reasons for this. However, what we need is a strong recovery of the old custom. In the Church of England, the Eucharist is celebrated every Sunday and there are many more communicants.
Lehtonen wanted to follow the Anglican example in reviving liturgical cus-toms and frequent communicating. The Church of England served as a good example of what he wanted to achieve in his own church. He criticised the decreasing lay participation in the liturgy together with the decreas-ing use of vestments, ornaments and liturgical forms among the clergy.170 Lehtonen’s interest in the Church of England strongly influenced his policy at home. He sought to revive and revitalise liturgical and devotional life in Finland along high church lines, corresponding to the catholic revival in the Church of England.
However, it is hard to define exactly how far the Archbishop’s personal interest in liturgical renaissance was shared or merely tolerated by the ma-jority of Church of Finland theologians and clergy. Some interesting light is shed by a comparison of how the Finnish church newspapers Kotimaa and Herättäjä reported the occasion.
Kotimaa’s account of the Archbishop’s lecture reported his general criti-cism of too reformed an understanding of worship, but omitted mention of his more specific comments concerning the changes that had impoverished the liturgical life and practice of which Lehtonen was an advocate. Nor did Kotimaa mention his citing of the Church of England as a positive example.
Herättäjä, however, reported the Archbishop’s ideas more fully. Harjunpää’s general introduction to Anglicanism received next to no interest in either newspaper.171 The Finnish church papers were more interested in news about the Church of England than in attempting any deep understanding of Anglicanism.
Hjä 44/1.11.1946 Puolentoista sataa pappia koolla Turun tieteellisillä luentokursseilla.
0 Hjä 44/1.11.1946 Puolentoista sataa pappia koolla Turun tieteellisillä luentokursseilla.
Hjä 44/1.11.1946 Puolentoista sataa pappia koolla Turun tieteellisillä luentokursseil-la; Kmaa 78/5.11.1946 Kristillisyys ei voi aina elää kuohuaikaa.
On the whole, Herättäjä’s reporting was more open and honest, whereas Kotimaa tried to harmonize the Lecture Days’ message to fit its editorial line. This meant the omission of any reference to “unnecessary” criticism of traditional pietistic low church tendencies in Finnish Lutheranism and to explicit suggestions of how to enrich the liturgy by returning to classical Lutheran tradition, coupled with avoiding the giving of positive examples from non-Lutheran churches and traditions. At a time when the person of the Archbishop of Finland was still very much above public criticism, this was an implicit criticism, silence and restraint in reporting controversy be-ing a traditional way of Finnish opposition.
The Lecture Days involved more than just discussion about liturgy.
Among the devotions and services, there was the first celebration of a Mi-kael Agricola Vespers in Turku Cathedral. The cathedral was full. The ves-pers was a deliberate follow-up to the St Henry’s Vesves-pers, which had been revived earlier the same year. The liturgy was led by Harjunpää and Dean Ahtola, but the preacher was the Rev. Jaakko Haavio, who was no friend of liturgical renewal.172 Even if the congregation failed to notice it, the liturgy was without a doubt based on Lehtonen’s earlier work, Harjunpää’s liturgi-cal expertise bringing it alive.
Apart from great public occasions, at the same time Harjunpää estab-lished a circle to promote his liturgical reforms.173 This was especially re-markable as, in addition to his work as Archbishop’s Secretary, Harjunpää was secretary for the reconstruction work and a parish priest in one of the Turku urban parishes.174 Following many private discussions with his friends, Harjunpää called a meeting to inaugurate the circle, which was to be called The Liturgical Brethren. The meeting was attended by twelve Finnish Lu-theran pastors, theologians and church musicians, along with many of their wives. The programme of the meeting was simple: there was a meditation on the season of Advent by the Rev. A.E. Koskenniemi, followed by an out-line by Harjunpää of his liturgical plans. Fittingly, the meeting took place at Harjunpää’s home, called St Henry’s House, at Vasaramäki parish centre, on 2 December 1946.175
Hjä 44/1.11.1946 Puolentoista sataa pappia koolla Turun tieteellisillä luentokursseil-la; Kmaa 78/5.11.1946 Kristillisyys ei voi aina elää kuohuaikaa; Haavio 1978, 91.
Parvio 1977, 121-122.
Interview of the Rt Revd Samuel Lehtonen 11.5.2000.
Parvio 1977, 121-122.
The Rev. Martti Parvio was present at the meeting. He and Harjunpää were kindred spirits. He later recalled Harjunpää’s plans based on the min-utes of the meeting:
In his outline Harjunpää suggested the establishment of a circle where it would be possible to realize the ideas of liturgical renewal. He stressed that there was a natural coincidence of interest. The purpose was not to attack anybody, but rather to look forward to a new reformation. The spiritual heritage, the Lutheran Confession, the Word and Sacraments were binding, but we had also to build on that which pro-motes the unity of the whole Church of Christ. In this context, he pointed out that the Finnish Hymnal was both Lutheran and ecumenical with regard to texts and melodies. He dismissed the idea of a special Finnish Christianity and emphasized that in Lutheranism the theology of pulpit and altar had generally been balanced.
This being so, a new ecclesiastical revival was needed. The liturgy should be the task of the whole local congregation. It was the clergy rather than the laity who often hindered this. The Church’s year should be lived with daily. The musica sacra and or-dines minores should be revived and restored. There should be life in the ecclesia.
Harjunpää’s plan was thus both deeply Lutheran and ecumenical in nature, but the practical suggestions concerning the deepening of the liturgical ex-pression of the whole congregation reflected in essence very much what the catholic liturgical revival had achieved in the Church of England. Both movements drew from the catholic tradition while being true to their de-nominational identity. Harjunpää’s plan can thus be seen as an attempt to establish a Finnish Lutheran version of the Swedish and English liturgical revivals.
The link between Harjunpää’s circle’s aim to promote a “new reforma-tion” and Anglican influences was also noted by Parvio in his article about the circle. Parvio recalled how Archbishop Lehtonen had sent him for three months to Great Britain in the autumn of 1947 and that members of the Archbishop’s family had participated in the activities of the circle.177 This is another sign that Lehtonen used relations with the Church of England as a channel to provide liturgical stimulus to the life of the Finnish Church.
Whatever his sympathies, Lehtonen never participated in the circle’s meetings; his wife and sons did, however. He wished to avoid seeming to take sides or being seen to belong to any particular party for the sake of the unity of his diocese.178 Notable exceptions to this rule are his Encyclical
Parvio 1977, 122.
Parvio 1977, 124.
Interview of the Rt Revd Samuel Lehtonen 11.5.2000; The Interview of Metropolitan Elder John of Nicaea 10.3.2008.
ter, 1945, in which he openly supported high church ideas, and the lecture already mentioned.
However, aspects of Lehtonen’s churchmanship were sometimes ex-posed by others, as when the Swedish professor Lydia Wahlström’s article
“Among the ecumenists in Åland” was reproduced in the Swedish language Församlingsbladet. The article had originally been published in Svenska Morgonbladet in Sweden and it dealt with an informal ecumenical meeting to which she had been invited in the Åland Islands. The other participants included Archbishop Lehtonen, who spent his summer holidays nearby; the Very Rev. Norman T. Cockburn, the Dean of Edinburgh, visiting Finland on a CRE stipend; Fr Gunnar Rosendal, the vicar of Osby in Sweden and a leader of the Swedish high church revival, and the Rev. Valdemar Nyman, who as vicar of Finström, where they met, acted as host.179
Wahlström described Lehtonen as fluent in English language and cul-ture, which confirmed what they had already heard in Sweden of his ecu-menical activities in general and of his English sympathies in particular.
She congratulated the Finnish Church for having such an internationally broad-minded and sympathetic leader. She described how Lehtonen had introduced Cockburn, who was struck by many similarities with Scotland, to the Finnish church and cultural life.180 One similarity must have been that in both countries church life in general was largely pietistic or puritan in nature.
There was no trace of pietism or puritanism at the Åland meeting, as evidenced by Nyman’s speech, which emphasized the unity of the Church in time and space with reference to northern European missionary saints.
Wahlstrom further recorded that the late Archbishop of Uppsala, Nathan Söderblom’s name was constantly brought up in conversations both in Swedish and in English:
And here was mentioned more than once the name of Nathan Söderlom both in English and in Swedish - he was all the time like an invisible member of the
And here was mentioned more than once the name of Nathan Söderlom both in English and in Swedish - he was all the time like an invisible member of the