Even secular Sweden is no exception to the rule that, in times of crisis, people turn to God.
Last month's Asian tsunami has become a national disaster for Sweden, whose sun-seeking holidaymakers account for almost 2,000 of those still officially missing or unaccounted for in Thai and Sri Lankan resorts, alongside 52 confirmed dead.
Politicians have come under fire for a supposedly slow response, but the church has been earning respect with its support for victims' relatives, at home and abroad.
About 35 pastors from the Lutheran Church of Sweden were on hand in the disaster zone to offer comfort, 20 of them flying in especially. The Church's Bangkok pastor, Lennart Hamark, was one of the first Swedish aid workers to reach Thai beaches after disaster struck.
"It is impossible to say how many I talked to in all, but it must have been many hundreds," he said by phone. "And nearly every one needed verbal support and therapy."
At home, churches stayed open longer and pastors made themselves available for counselling on the Internet.
Church attendance in Sweden is among the lowest in the world, and the recent introduction of church tax has prompted many of the population -- the vast majority of them nominal church members -- to consider leaving.
But since the tsunami, the number of potential leavers in big cities has fallen to 13 percent from 22 percent, according to a poll published in the daily Svenska Dagbladet this week.
The church also scored top, along with aid groups and tour firms, in a survey of how Swedish institutions responded.
"It becomes much more evident in this kind of situation that people seek out the church," said Michael Persson, chaplain to Sweden's archbishop. "But I think it is impossible for anybody to say if it will have a lasting, measurable effect.
"I think the eternal questions are there for all people, but it is not until you are in dire straits that you start to really think about them."