Church membership and confirmation

More than eighty percent of the people who live in Finland are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.  Every church member has been baptized, most of them as infants but some at a later age.  In most cases they have been members of this church ever since they were baptized, but some have been baptized in another Christian fellowship, and they have joined this church later in life.  Also, some people who have become members of our Evangelical Lutheran Church at baptism have quit church membership at some point but have returned later.  In any case, a person who has received a valid baptism earlier in life is not baptized again upon joining our church.
Baptism


If you live permanently in Finland, you can become a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.  The local Lutheran congregation that you join, then, is determined by your address.  If you have never been baptized before, you are baptized so you can become a member – but if you are fifteen or more years of age, you must study some basics of Christianity before you are baptized.  If you have been baptized in another church and wish to join ours, one of our pastors will consider how much you need to study to be a member of the Lutheran church.  After such studies (and baptism if you need one) you are considered a confirmed member of the church, so that a separate confirmation is not necessary.
For adults


CONFIRMATION is a sacred rite of the church (although Lutherans do not count it as a sacrament).  In Finland, church members who have been baptized as children usually go to confirmation school and become confirmed during the year in which they become fifteen years old (usually the year when they finish eighth grade in school).  Unbaptized youngsters of the same age often attend confirmation school, too, but they must be baptized at the end of their studies to be confirmed, which means they also become church members.
For teenagers


Church membership is for the rest of your life unless you specifically quit from membership at some point.  (Joining another registered religious community in Finland is considered an act of leaving the Lutheran church.)  The church will not throw you out.  If you move in Finland from one place to another to a new home, the local congregation of ELCF where you are a member is always determined by your address, so that you don't have to apply for membership again.  A church member who moves abroad is considered an absentee member of the last congregation where he/she resided in Finland.