Friday, April 16, 2021

Two Pastors In Finland Arrested During Outdoor Service


Two pastors in Finland arrested during outdoor worship service

Jeanne Smits,



Two Christian pastors were arrested and detained in Espoo, Finland, for over four hours last Sunday, presumably in order to stop them from resuming an outdoor worship service that had been interrupted by police because of COVID-19 regulations. 

The two pastors were unable to obtain clear information about why they had been detained, according to a video report posted in English on YouTube by another pastor, Miska Wilhelmsson, who is a friend of the two men, and who sometimes preaches during their services.


The incident took place on Sunday, April 11, when a few dozen members of the Baptist-affiliated “home church” (Kottikirko) gathered on a large, airy plaza surrounded by closed shops and restaurants for their public worship that was also being filmed for faithful to follow on internet. 

According to the congregation’s website, it was the fifth Sunday running that the Christian group held its Sunday gathering in the open air in the southern Finnish town of Espoo.


The Espoo Kottikirko is a fully registered and officially recognized church in Finland, with all the legal and constitutional rights afforded to religious assemblies and churches in the country. In his video, Wilhelmsson stated that despite local “misunderstandings” about the fact, national or regional health restrictions do not apply within religious congregations, and public authorities may not interfere with religious gatherings.

In normal times, their preaching and worship take place in a restaurant which they are able to rent because it does not cater to the general public on Sundays. But COVID restrictions have forced restaurants and other public venues to remain closed for the last weeks in the Espoo and Helsinki areas. The church run by Tommi Matikka simply moved its gatherings from the restaurant to the public plaza in front of it — with “permission,” according to Wilhelmsson, because the church does not own premises adequate for worship.

Nothing untoward happened until last Sunday, when masked police officers came to warn the worshipers that they must leave the area because their public gathering was illegal.

But the 35 members of the 40-strong community remained, observing 2 meter distancing between family groups.

The police then returned in larger numbers — up to four police vans closed in on the group, according to Miska Wilhelmsson — and after warning the two pastors who had been preaching in a calm manner, turned down their loudspeakers, argued about the group’s compliance with COVID regulations, and threatened to arrest everyone.

At one point, the police even told Tommi Matikka that his family that was present at the worship was not “socially distancing” correctly. The pastor looked surprised and argued that his wife and five children — “one in the womb,” explained Wilhelmsson in his video — were at least two meters distant from other family groups. The police answered that while it is true that families may remain close together inside their homes, outside each member, even toddlers, should observe the 2 meter rule. Matikka asked the police to repeat that statement, and laughed when the police confirmed his Kafkaesque statement. According to witnesses, the police officer even said family groups should allow five meter distances between them, despite the fact that no such rule exists to that effect.


Several police officers then seized the two pastors by the arms and led them to separate police vans before frisking them and taking them away while the congregation, by now holding hands, sung hymns. The two pastors were held in jail cells: While they were apparently being held for questioning, they were not in fact given a real opportunity to express themselves and ask their own questions regarding the justification of the violation of their freedoms.

There are full videos online of the police forcibly putting an end to the group’s worship and refusing to give clear answers, only saying that the Christian worshipers needed to comply with police orders.

The Espoo Kottikirko community clearly does not intend to let itself be trampled on or to be intimidated because its two pastors, who reacted peacefully throughout the incident, were treated “like criminals,” as Wilhelmsson put it.

The community’s website published a communiqué for the media this Wednesday under the title: “[April 11] meeting was not illegal.” The site’s front page announced that worship will again take place next Sunday, April 18, at 10:30 at the same location, adding: “You are all welcome.”

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