Eroakirkosta.fi

Eroakirkosta.fi
Website eroakirkosta.fi
Launched 2003
Current status Active

Eroakirkosta.fi is a Finnish website which offers an electronic service for resigning from Finland's state churches; the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Finnish Orthodox Church. "Eroa kirkosta" translates to "resign from the church".

The website was created by Freethinkers of Tampere, an organization that supports a formal separation of church and state, and opened on November 21, 2003. The Finnish law on freedom of religion was updated on August 1, 2003 and then allowed resigning from religions without a visit to a bureau. Because eroakirkosta.fi is not maintained by magistrates, the website can not directly resign a person from a church. Instead, the website forwards the filled-in resignation forms to magistrates who then complete the resignation. Resignations through e-mail are allowed because the Finnish law requires resignations to be "in writing" but not "signed". Eroakirkosta.fi also gives the user the alternative to print the resignation form and send it through regular mail.

Eroakirkosta.fi became popular very quickly. Within ten weeks over 1,400 people had resigned through the website.[1] In 2004, almost 39% of all resignations in the country were done through eroakirkosta.fi. In 2005, the percentage increased to 68.9. In 2006, almost four out of five persons resigned through the website. The total resignation rates in Finland have also increased. The number of people resigning from the state churches has tripled in six years (2000–2006),[2] and the 2005 and 2006 resignation numbers both break the old record of 30,710 from 1992.[3] 47 300 members left the church through the service in 2008, that is 91% of all resignations (52,200).[4] In 2011, 46,502 resignations and in 2012, 41,261 resignations were registered at the Eroakirkosta.fi site.[5]

Publicity

The web service received publicity October 2010, after a gay rights panel discussion on TV on October 12 was followed by thousands of people resigning from the Evangelical Lutheran Church by using the service.[6]

Resignation statistics

From inception through the end of 2015 more than a half million Finns out of a total population of 5,5 million resigned using the Eroa Kirkosta website,[7] for the number of resignations by year refer table below.

Year All resignations Through eroakirkosta.fi [8] Percentage
2003 26,857 ~1,000 ~3.7
2004 27,009 10,459 38.7
2005 33,043 22,770 68.9
2006 34,952 27,672 79.2
2007 37,879 32,418 85.6
2008 52,203 47,333 90.7
2009 43,650 39,200 89.8
2010 83,097 79,200 95.3
2011 46,177[9] 45,000[10] 97.5
2012 41,079[11] 40,200[12] 97.9
2013 58,965[13] 54,300[12] 92.1
2014 78,300[14]
2015 45,241[15] 45,029[16] 99.5

References

  1. ↑ "Kirkosta eroaminen suosittua internetin kautta". Digitoday (in Finnish). Retrieved 2007-10-20.
  2. ↑ "Kirkosta eronneiden määrä kolminkertaistunut kuudessa vuodessa". Etelä-Suomen Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 2007-10-20.
  3. ↑ "Kirkosta erottiin ennätystahtiin". MTV3 (in Finnish). Retrieved 2007-10-20.
  4. ↑ "Valtionkirkosta erosi ennätysmäärä jäseniä". Eroakirkosta.fi. 2009-02-16. Retrieved 2013-09-28.
  5. ↑ "tilastot". Eroakirkosta.fi. Retrieved 2013-09-28.
  6. ↑ Helsingin Sanomat International Edition (October 18, 2010). "Up to 18,000 leave Lutheran Church over statements on gay current affairs programme". Retrieved October 19, 2010.
  7. ↑ "Eroa kirkosta". Eroakirkosta.fi. Retrieved 2015-12-22.
  8. ↑ "tilastot". Eroakirkosta.fi. Retrieved 2013-09-28.
  9. ↑ http://evl.fi/EVLUutiset.nsf/Documents/F9015267D433F41EC225799500443630?OpenDocument&lang=FI
  10. ↑ http://www.eroakirkosta.fi/media/none/tiedote_01_2012.html?year=2012
  11. ↑ http://evl.fi/EVLUutiset.nsf/Documents/A2B2B7B6BFC8B7DCC2257B050023BC62?OpenDocument&lang=FI
  12. 1 2 400 000 eroa rikki eroakirkosta.fi January 2, 2014
  13. ↑ "Vahvistetut jäsentilastot 2013: Kolme neljästä suomalaisesta kuuluu kirkkoon" (in Finnish). Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. February 11, 2014. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Seurakuntien väestömuutokset vuonna 2014" (in Finnish and Swedish). Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. January 30, 2015. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  15. ↑ "Väestönmuutokset 2015" (PDF) (in Finnish). Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. April 22, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  16. ↑ "Päiväkohtaiset erolukemat" (in Finnish). Eroakirkosta.fi. Retrieved May 3, 2016.

External links

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