Spiritual Society of Companions

The Spiritual Society of Companions is a Amendant Christian denomination known colloquially as the Lamenters. The Lamenters were expelled from the Christenist movement in Ebrary in 1570, during the early years of King Gustav II's reign, and formed their own congregations. Lamenters are united in a belief that each human being can experience and access the "mysteries in one's own soul" or experience God in everyone. The movement stresses dressing in "plain clothes", which is defined as black or gray clothing with no patterns, abstaining from the consumption of alcohol or tobacco products, and avoiding participation in military conflict and interpersonal violence.

Lamenters follow a decentralized congregationalist church structure, with each Lamenter church governed independently but joining regional and national associations. Currently the largest national association of Lamenter congregations is the General Companions Conference, with approximately 85% of Lamenter churches belonging to it. The second largest, the National Companions Association, comprises around 9%. Originally, Lamenter churches followed a "non-pastoral" mode of worship where all members of the congregation were allowed to speak and preach during the church service. However, the majority of Lamenter churches now follow a "semi-pastoral" service, where a pastor preaches for an allotted time and then others may preach afterwards. The National Companions Association split from the General Companions Conference in 1911 over this issue, with the National Companions Association being an association solely of non-pastoral congregations and the General Companions Conference accepting both kinds of congregations.