Summer Services
Suviseurat is an annual summer service arranged in co-operation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. It is the largest spiritual event in all the Nordic countries, with about 75 000 participants. Service guests arrive each year from over 30 different countries.
Suviseurat, summer services have been arranged since 1906. The summer services are arranged in different localities each year.
The service program primarily consists of sermons, hymns and Songs of Zion. Meeting friends and acquaintances is of great significance too. The sermons are Biblical speeches about God’s love and mercy toward a sin-fallen person.The sermons teach that when a person believes their sins forgiven, they attain peace into their heart and a sure and everlasting foundation for their life based on the merits of the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus.
In the middle of the summer service site is a central opening and the service tent, in which the sermons are preached and liturgy officiated. The tent seats 4000 listeners.
A Sunday morning worship service is held in many of the area churches. Holy Communion is served in the service tent with about 70 clergymen officiating.
Sermons and singing is broadcast through loudspeakers scattered over entire service site, on which the greater portion of service guests are lodged in travel trailers, motorhomes, and tents. Sermons are interpreted into nine different languages. The row of flags on the summer site represent the 19 different countries the SRK central organization sends mission speakers.
The whole summer service site is like a self-sustaining medium-size city with all needed conveniences, goods and services. All of this is provided by volunteer labor.
Suomen Rauhanyhdistysten Keskusyhdistys (SRK), Finland’s Central Organization of Associations of Peace serves as the umbrella organization for 178 registered originations. The SRK serves and supports the actives of its member organizations.
Additional information about the SRK, sister organizations and activities of the local congregations can be found on the following website: www.rauhanyhdistys.fi