Before 1863 the rural parishes were responsible

for both the ecclesiastical and the local government

matters. By this time the parishes were divided in

two different units, one for the ecclesiastical matters

and one for the local government matters. Because

of that the parishes and the local government areas

were mostly the same. The mutal parish areas and the

local government areas coincide in very few cases.

The rare exceptions from that were combined town

and countryside mutal parishes.

When the parliament in 1919 decided a new law of

division it was emphasized that the local government

division was the most important division at the local l

evel. Because of that the local government division

should be totally independent from the parish division.

In spite of that it was not so important before the great municipal amalgamation in Sweden in 1952. During the parliamentary treatment of the municipal division it was discussed to what extent the new large municipalities

should coincide with the mutal parishes. The difficulty

was that many mutal parishes hade less than 2000

inhabitants, which was prescribed minimum population

for the new large municipalities. During the local

realization several municipalities wanted the mutal

parishes to be new large municipalities, despite they

hade less than 2000 inhabitants. Because of the

decision in principle at national level the demands

were mostly rejected. The great municipal

amalgamation in 1952 was the last occasion

when an ecclesiastical division was discussed as a

model for the municipal division.

At the mutal parish reform in 1962 the great municipals

became a very important model for the new bigger mutal parishes. The Swedish Church was not entirely satisfied

with this decision. There were probably two reasons.

Partly it was a desire to keep mutal parishes in spite of

the fact that they were located in more than one

municipal, partly it might be easier to keep mutal

parishes with rather few inhabitants. In 1962 70

percent of the Swedish municipalities were a mutal

parish at the same time.

The strong connection between the municipalities and

mutal parishes was not permanent for a long time.

Already in 1962 the parliament made a decision in

principle on a new municipal amalgamation. When

the new municipal division was decided in 1964 very

few municipalities had the same area as a mutal parish,

because the new municipalities at least should have

8000 inhabitants. Another consequence of the new

municipal division was that the number of mutal parishes

which were located in more than one municipality

increased. Because of that it was necessary to change

the mutal parish division. This process started in the

early 1970s, but was not yet fully completed in 1999.

These mutal parish adjustments have been the most

important changes of the ecclesiastical division in

Sweden during the last three decades of the 20th

century. Since 1952 nearly all changes of the

ecclesiastical division have been realized with the

municipality division as a model. The Church has

lacked fully freedom of action to change its own

ecclesiastical division.