About us

The Finnish Methodist church of Helsinki was founded in 1894. So far it is the only Finnish-speaking Methodist congregation in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Today, the membership of the church totals 200 members. Our pastors are: Jukka Hiltunen (from August 2023) and Freeman Awuah (he serves mainly the English-speaking congregation in Helsinki.)

The church building is situated in the Punavuori quarter near the Helsinki city centre. It was designed by the renowned architect Lars Sonck and built in 1929.

We have a Worship service in Finnish every Sunday at 11 a.m, followed by church coffee. Since May 2014, an English-speaking worship service has taken place on on many Sundays at 12.30. If there is no English service, the Finnish worship service is usually interpreted into English.

 On the weekdays we meet for Bible study and prayer on several occasions (in Finnish and/or English). Meetings for prayer and Bible study in English, called ’community fellowships’, are currently held biweekly in homes in Espoo and in Helsinki/Vantaa. During the summer there are fewer activities, but the Worship Services are still held on Sundays, except for one Sunday in end of June or beginning of July; on that weekend the Finnish Methodists gather for their Annual Conference.

In 2015 we started meetings for youth and young adults(”Nuortenilta”).  These are usually held in Finnish but interpretation can be arranged as needed.

We want to reach more people with the gospel. This goal has been supported by various outreach activities over the years. Our church is active in the mission work: especially the Finnish-speaking congregation collects funds for a Christian School in India as well as for Christian summer camps and Christmas parties held in the Vepsian villages in north-west Russia (Vepsian is a Finno-Ugric language spoken as mother tongue by less than 10 000 people today). 

The English-speaking group started to support mission work in Thailand in 2015, after  Axel Barbette and Peter Willis from the Pori, Western Finland, had visited our English service, telling about the H2O work among Burmese refugees in Thailand. For more information, please check the H20 website.

Today (2019) there are altogether 9 Finnish Methodist congregations in Finland (see a list here) and 14 Swedish-speaking congregations. (click here). Both the Finnish and the Swedish Methodist Churches in Finland have they own, separate organisations, but both are part of the worldwide United Methodist Church. They both belong to the UMC Nordic & Baltic Episcopal Area. The nearest Swedish-speaking Methodist congregation is situated in the Töölö quarter of Helsinki. In addition, a Russian Methodist congregation was founded in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area in 2013.

 If you are looking for a place to worship the Lord, join us on Sunday! You are warmly welcome to both our Finnish-language or English-language services and other meetings, whatever your nationality or denominational background. You can check the upcoming events in Tapahtumakalenteri(in Finnish and English). The street address of our church is  Fredrikintori/ Punavuorenkatu 2, and it is served by the buses 14, 17 or 18 and tram number 3.

Currently there are Methodist activities in English, besides Helsinki, at least in the Finnish-speaking congregations of Tampere, Pori and most recently also Lahti, as well as in some Swedish-speaking congregations (at least in Turku/Åbo, Kokkola/Karleby, and in the middle of Espoo in the town of Kauniainen/Grankulla).