Dopträd – ursprung, spridning och funktion

Sammanfattning: The aim of this essay is to investigate how common so called Baptismal Trees are in the Church of Sweden, and analyse their origin and function, as well as inquire what role the Baptismal Tree has within the Swedish Church. Usually, a Baptismal Tree is a tree, but it can also be a painting, a fishnet, or a display case visible to the congregation in a church room. Symbolic christening gifts, given to the newly baptised at their baptism, are attached to these Baptismal Trees. The christening gifts are later retrieved at a baptismal reunion. The material for this essay consists mainly of 1384 survey responses, the result of 4310 e-mails. The survey was sent to all the parishes of the Church of Sweden, addressed to their priests and parish educators. In addition to the given surveys, telephone calls and mail communication were made to a special subset of the survey respondents. From the information gathered in these telephone calls and mail communication, it can be inferred that the Baptismal Tree originated independently in a handful of Swedish parishes in the late 1990s. Although it is clear that the historical inspiration for the Baptismal Tree varies, it is equally clear that its function remains constant. The problem it addresses is the gap between those who celebrate the main service on Sundays and those who merely attend baptisms. Based on all the collected material, a close reading of relevant literature, and the subsequent analysis and discussion, the conclusion is that the main function of the Baptismal Tree is to make baptism more visible for those who celebrate the main service on Sundays and more significant for those who merely attend the baptism. This in turn serves the purpose of strengthening the bond between the Sunday-celebrating congregations and the individual, privatized baptism congregations.