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Our story
A group of social democratic parliament members called people together for a meeting at the community hall of Helsinki on 20th March 1946. This meeting founded the organization Kristillisten sosialidemokraattien liitto ry (The league of Christian social democrats). The purpose of the newly-founded organization was to bring together people with Christian and social democratic values, and to have an effect on the relationship between the evangelical Lutheran church and the social democratic party of Finland. Another purpose was to inform the working class about social, political and cultural themes to prepare them for influencing work in the party and in the society.
Today, the league has 150 members and close ties with the Social democratic party of Finland, where it has a say on politics concerning church, religions or other matters. We work closely together with social democrats who have elected positions in their churches or other religious organizations, and we take active part in the discussion in Finland where it concerns matters of religion, or humanity in general. We mainly cooperate with people from various Christian churches, but we actively seek contacts with social democrats from other denominations as well.
The biggest church in Finland is the Evangelical-Lutheran church of Finland (about 4 million members). Our next challenge will be the nation-wide elections this coming autumn, where almost 8 000 elected representatives will be chosen to the local parishes. Together with the party, we formulate of the social democratic election platform. Among the current issues discussed in the Lutheran church are the marriage law, church finances, offering shelter to undocumented migrants, and youth exclusion.