Church of Sweden - what kind of organisation are we?

What kind of entity is the Church of Sweden (CoS) when engaged in activities with partners internationally? Are we a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), a Faith-Based Organisation (FBO) or something else?

Steve de Gruchy
died in 2010
while tubing
on the Mooi River
 with his son.

In 2012 a book was published in Honour of Steve de Gruchy, former Dean of our School:

Living on the Edge. Essays in Honour of Steve de Gruchy Activist & Theologian. 

The book is edited by James R Cochrane, Elias Bongmba, Isabel Phiri, and Des van der Water. Cluster Publications. Pietermaritzburg.

In one of the essays "Faith Amid Turbulent Currents on a Living River" Gary Gunderson writes about the ARHAP (African Religious Health Assets Programme). This programme distinguishes between FBO’s and FFE’s. FFE stand for: Faith Forming Entity. Gunderson writes:

FBO’s are nearly always organized around a temporal, functional purpose that tends to downplay the most distinctive thing of relevance to those in them, which is to express the faith nurtured in their particular FFE.

As an employee of the International Department of the CoS I sometimes ask myself questions based on this distinction. If we go back in the history of the CoS we have traditionally tried to hold together the two: we are both an agency that seeks to transform the lives of people through the kind of temporal programmes that Gunderson speaks about. At the same time we are a church, with all its implications.

The Facebook page of our international department does not even describe us as an FBO. It says that we are an NGO. To me, that is a concern.

'Svenska kyrkans internationella arbete' means
'the Church of Sweden's International Work'.

The FFE concept is useful to me. It shows that there is a tension between different aspects in our international work. I believe it has to be. Other churches have solved this by having one organisation for aid (like the Norwegian Church Aid) which is not the same thing as the Church of Norway.

My points here are:

1. The Church of Sweden International Work is definitely not a non-governmental organisation (NGO). I hope this will be changed on the Facebook-page.

2. I agree that we need to live in the tension between being a faith-based organisation (FBO) and a faith forming entity (FFE).

3. It takes two to tango. Church relations are important if we are going to live up to our vision to be both an FBO and an FFE. In our Church relations we connect to roots both in the congregations of the CoS and deep down in our partner churches.

In the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics at the UKZN we try to keep this together. Many of my colleagues describe themselves as at the same time church people, activists and academics. Yes, there are tensions from time to time but it is impossible to separate those aspects. As the CoS we have a lot to learn from this.