User:Daask/sandbox/Brethren in Scandinavia



The Brödraförsamlingen, also known as the Mennonite Brödrakyrka, was a branch of the American Church of the Brethren in Sweden and Denmark. It was founded in 1885 by a Danish man named Christian Hope.

History
The society was financially supported by the Church of the Brethren in the United States. However, they remained a very small church. In 1929, there were five parishes in Malmö, Vanneberga, Kävlinge (Kjävlinge), Simrishamn, and Olseröd, with a total of about 175 members. In 1946 there were about 200 members. The members came from Skåne and Småland. There were also two congregations in Thy (Hørdum, Bedsted) and Vendsyssel (Hjørring) in Denmark. The assembly's first Swedish mission house was built around 1888 in Limhamn. From 1914, a periodical entitled Evangelii budbärare was published. In 1923, the church built its own church (Betesda) in Spångatan in Malmö. The church was later sold to the Salvation Army.

Mennonit Broederkirkens
Hammerich, a Danish historian, claimed that a group of who called themselves the "Mennonit Broederkirkens" [Mennonite Brethren] had been in Denmark since 1787. Hammerich reports that they immigrated from North Germany and settled in Friedrichstadt, Southern Jutland, and in Fredericia. The first congregation in Copenhagen was established in 1871. It once had four meetinghouses, two in Sweden and two in Denmark, but was not able to sustain them due to their small membership. In 1930, a census indicated 630 adult-baptizing Norweigens who were not Baptists. These were understood by a German periodical as Mennonites. Henry H. Janzen made contact with this group in 1950 and believed they were Mennonites as well. Janzen reported they had 50 baptized members in Denmark, as well as 25 in Sweden, 17 in Norway, and three in Finland. Unlike most Mennonites, they practiced immersion, and after Janzen's contact, it became clear that this group was not, in fact, Mennonite. Janzen took photographs of their church building in Malmö. It may have been Schwarzenau Brethren.