Baptists in Finland have existed since the middle of the 19th century. They are part of the Baptist branch of Protestant Christianity and belong to three different Finnish church associations. Swedish-speaking Finns formed the Swedish Baptist Union of Finland (), while Finnish-speaking Baptists are united in the Finnish Baptist Church (); two Finnish congregations are a part of the Seventh Day Baptists. In addition, a few independent Baptist churches exist, including Grace Baptist Church () in Tampere. The congregation was formerly known as in Finnish and International Baptist Church in English. Agape International Baptist Church in Pedersöre is also among the independent Baptist churches.
The Swedish Baptist Union, Finnish Baptist Church and Seventh Day Baptists are considered the first free churches in Finland. They were later followed by the Methodists, Pentecostals and other free evangelical churches. Today, these churches are united in the Free Church Council.
History
Beginnings in Åland
Swedish Baptist missionaries founded the first Finnish Baptist congregation in Föglö, Åland around 1856. After a request for preachers to revive the faith of the local church congregation, preacher Karl Justin Mathias Möllersvärd was sent by the Evangelical Alliance in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1854. Möllersvärd was the first to preach Baptist teachings in Finland and sparked a revival, though he did not stay long due to fierce opposition.
The movement, however, continued to grow. In 1855, a resident of Åland returned from Stockholm with material about Baptist beliefs written by former Lutheran priest Anders Wiberg. Farmer Johan Erik Östling was inspired to travel to Stockholm the next year and be baptized, making him the first Finnish Baptist.
Several baptisms were performed in Föglö the following year; they joined together with those who had already been baptized in Sweden to found the first Finnish Baptist church.
At that time, Finland was still part of the Russian Empire. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland dominated religious life and tried by all means to hinder the emergence and spread of free churches. The Conventicle Act, which outlawed religious meetings other than those of the state church as a means of stopping the growing Pietist movement, was enacted in 1726. A number of Baptists faced hearings at the cathedral in Turku to defend their faith before the Lutheran clergy in 1859. The movement happened to unexpectedly capture the interest of Lutheran priest Henrik Heikel, who spoke with the Baptists to learn more about their beliefs. He himself did not convert, but his interest was to play a key role in the church's spread.
Of the event, Wiberg wrote, "As the poor Ålanders were leaving the consistory, Prof. [Henrik] Heikel asked them in a friendly manner, to call at his house. They thought, what does it mean? Does he intend to make some further inquiries, in order to make the sentence against us more sure? In calling, however, they were happily disappointed. The professor entertained them with food, and treated them in the most friendly manner. His children, then young, were witnesses to all this, and they received a favorable impression of the Baptists which has followed them up to the present moment."
The movement's growth
Heikel moved to mainland Finland with his family in 1860. Pedersöre in Ostrobothnia was to become their home as he was installed as priest of the Lutheran church there. The family maintained contact with the Baptists in Åland; after his death in 1867, his son Viktor and daughter Anna were baptized as Baptists by Wiberg in Stockholm. Their conversions led to many more after Anna returned with literature and began to hold meetings. The family received a visit from a Baptist pastor, Adolf Herman Valén, who had been at the hearing with Heikel ten years earlier; they held meetings together and his preaching led to more conversions to the movement. He was the first Baptist to preach on the mainland. The first Baptist baptisms on the mainland were performed the same year, with Maria Ekqvist and Petter Stormåns being the first to be baptized.
The movement continued to grow in the following years and a Swedish-speaking congregation was founded in Jakobstad (Finnish: ), near Pedersöre, in 1870, by thirteen people including four members of the Heikel family. That year, the Conventicle Act was also repealed in Finland. (In 1891 the Jakobstad Baptist church would undergo a split due to differing views, particularly over open or closed communion.) Ostrobothnia has since remained a hub of the Baptist movement in Finland. Today, the only two Swedish-speaking Baptist churches outside the region are located in Helsinki and Karis.