St. Matthew's Church building and history

St. Matthew's Church (Matteuksenkirkko), located on the corner of Olavinlinnantie and Turunlinnantie, was designed by architects Veli-Pekka Tuominen and Stefan Ahlman. The church was completed in 1985.

The red brick church was named after the Evangelist Matthew, whose symbol is the figure of a winged angel. On the altar wall is the brick composition "Taivaan portti" (Heaven's gate) and the cross-shaped ceramic work of sculptor Anna-Maria Osipow. The altar crucifix was made by sculptor Arvo Siikamäki. The church textiles were designed by textile artist Immi Halsti. The architect of the church, Stefan Ahlman, also designed the communion utensils for the church.

According to ancient tradition, the baptismal font is placed near the entrance to the church sanctuary. In the baptism chapel, you can see Anna-Maria Osipow's ceramic work "Elämänvirta" (River of Life). The baptismal font is part of the work.

Church organ and tower bells

The organ at St. Matthew's Church is from the Kangasala organ builder and has 22 stops. The church also has a grand piano and the main hall is noted for great acoustics. The church steeple has six bells. When the six bells of the church call the faithful to mass, one can identify the hymn ”Kirkkoon kun kellot kutsuvat, suo sinne tiemme johtaa” (When the bells call to church, let our road lead us there) in the melody. Altogether fifteen different hymn melodies can be played with the bells, which were made in the Netherlands. This church is known for ringing the bells remarkably often every Sunday because there are so many Sunday services held at the church.

Congregations at St. Matthew's Church

St. Matthew's Church serves as the home to several parishes and offers church services in several languages.

St. Matthew's International Lutheran Church is the parish serving English-speaking Christians throughout the greater Helsinki region, and offers regular Sunday Worship Service every week on Sunday at 2 pm at this church. For more information please see the web pages to St. Matthew's parish at javascript://tmplink

The church is also the home to the Lutheran parish serving Russian-speaking Christians. Their regular weekly Worship Service is on Sundays at 12 noon. For more information about the Lutheran Russian Church of Helsinki, in the Russian language, see this link: javascript://tmplink

For the three Swedish-speaking parishes of Helsinki, St. Matthew's is the home for the region of Eastern Helsinki, with a lot of regular activities arranged at the church. The main Worship Service in the Swedish language is on Sundays at 10 am. For more information about the parish called Matteus Församling, in Swedish language is at this link: javascript://tmplink

There used to be a Finnish-speaking parish also at this church, called Matteuksen Seurakunta, but now the church is part of Vartiokylän Seurakunta parish. For Finnish speakers the church arranges a shorter form holy Mass on Fridays at 12 noon. For more information about Vartiokylä parish, in Finnish, see javascript://tmplink

Celebrations at the church

Organising a baptism, a wedding or a funeral is free of charge at the church for members of the church.

The church seats 200 and the parish meeting hall 150. There are 100 seats at the tables in the parish meeting hall. The Olavus hall has 70, Populus hall 20 places at tables.

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