Following the spread of COVID-19 across Europe, more and more people feel the need for spiritual and emotional support to help them go through these challenging times. Against this context, our Swedish member Svenska Kyrkan has decided to strengthen its On-Call Clergy service.

The service gives people the opportunity to share their concerns, pains, fears, worries and questions about life and death and to receive conversational support from the pastors via phone. In the past few weeks, the number of people who have used this service has increased steadily and now reaches around 200 calls per day. To respond to the needs of the people Svenska Kyrkan has increased the number of pastors working at the call center.

The On-Call Clergy is now available between 5 pm and 8 am every day at 112, the European emergency phone number. So far, this number has been primarily associated with the need for assistance from the firefighting department, the police or hospitals but amid the COVID-19 pandemic it was deemed useful to have spiritual support available through it too.

 

To learn more about Svenska Kyrkan‘s initiatives, please visit their website.