Elävä seurakunta - Levande församling (Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

/Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

 for 'Living Congregation') is a nominating group for the elections to assemblies of the Church of Sweden

Church of Sweden

The Church of Sweden is the largest Christian church in Sweden. The church professes the Lutheran faith and is a member of the Porvoo Communion. With 6,589,769 baptized members, it is the largest Lutheran church in the world, although combined, there are more Lutherans in the member churches of...

. The group is based in Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

, and wants to promote Finnish-Swedish bilingualism in the Church. The group is opposed to same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....

.

The group made its electoral debut in the 2005 Church elections

Elections to the Church Assembly, 2005

Elections were held to the Church Assembly , i.e. the "parliament" of the Church of Sweden on September 18, 2005. Simultaneously elections were held to diocese and parish assemblies all over the country....

, but without winning any seat in the Church Assembly. It only presented a list in one diocese, the Diocese of Stockholm. The group also contested the election to the Diocese Council of Stockholm. It was able to win 19.7% of the votes in the election to the Finnish Parish Council in Stockholm, winning four seats and two alternate seats.