The attack that knocked out the Church of Sweden’s IT system has meant a lot of extra work for the congregations outside the country when church affairs can once again be handled with paper and pen.
One of the parishes that has had to stress test its operations is Värnamo parish where Tobias Munkholm is the cemetery director.
– Most things become a little more complicated when we don’t have the computers to help us, but it works. We have benefited a lot from working with crisis preparedness before and reviewing our routines, he says.
Among the systems that have been eliminated in recent weeks is the Church of Sweden’s booking system for funerals, baptisms and weddings. In Värnamo, much of the business has been saved by maintaining an analogue system in parallel.
– The burial registers are also available on paper so we can go in and check information there, so it’s not that we can’t bury or that there is uncertainty about where to dig, we have full control of that, says Tobias Munkholm.
However, a security check of the tombstones coincided somewhat unhappily with the IT attack.
– We sent out a letter about this to those concerned just before this happened, but when they now get in touch, we find it difficult to check the information, but we record everything with paper and pen, says Tobias Munkholm.