Four Immigrant Churches and a Mosque : an Overview of Immigrant Religious Institutions in Oulu

The northern Finnish city of Oulu has a relatively small immigrant population; only two thousand out of around 130,000 inhabitants, not including those who are naturalised. There are immigrants from various developed countries, usually having reached the city because of work with the telecommunications company Nokia or other international companies, research or study at Oulu University (or sometimes at the University of Applied Sciences) or because they are in a relationship with a Finn. In addition, there are refugees from various developing countries and in particular Sudan, Somalia and Iraq. Though the foreign population in Oulu is modest compared to that in Finland’s capital Helsinki, there are five immigrant-led religious organisations operating in the city. There is an official ‘English Language Church’ run by the Oulu Finnish Lutheran Church which maintains connections with the Anglican Chaplaincy in Helsinki. There is a more conservative evangelical English-language church which split from the Lutheran-run church and was originally established by a South African Finnish-Lutheran priest called the Rev’d Patrick Dickson. Currently, there are two separate Arabic-language Sudanese churches (one Anglican and the other of mixed denomination) and a Mosque. In addition, Oulu’s Orthodox Cathedral has so many foreign worshippers at its Easter service that the head priest (‘Kirkkoherra’) declares ‘Jesus is Risen!’ in not only Finnish but also Russian and Greek.CHAPTER ONE Introduction Outline Religion and Immigration Immigration and Fundamentalism CHAPTER TWO Oulu as a Field Religious Dynamics in Oulu The Laestadians, Church Organisation and Immigrants Language and Culture CHAPTER THREE Immigrant churches in Oulu Brief of History of the Oulu International Church The Sudanese Anglican Church in Oulu The Anglican Church in Finland CHAPTER FOUR Oulu’s Mosque History and Connections Brief Descriptive Analysis Theological Perspectives CHAPTER FIVE Why the move to Radical Conservatism? BIBLIOGRAPHY