Church of Norway

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Crest of the Church of Norway

The Church of Norway (Den norske kirke in Bokmål or Den norske kyrkja in Nynorsk), also known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway, is the state church of Norway, to which 83% of Norwegians are members.[1] The Church of Norway professes the Lutheran branch of Christianity, and is a member of the Porvoo Communion.

Contents

[edit] Organization

The dioceses of the Church of Norway
The dioceses of the Church of Norway
Bakka kirke in Aurland, Sogn, Norway
Bakka kirke in Aurland, Sogn, Norway

The Church of Norway is established as the state church of Norway in the Constitution of Norway, and its constitutional head is the reigning monarch of Norway, who is obliged to profess himself/herself to the Lutheran faith. It is subject to legislation and budgeting passed by the Norwegian parliament, Stortinget and its central administrative functions is carried out by the Royal Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs.

It is subject to further governance through a congregational, synodal and episcopal structure, all based on the division of Norway into 1,284 parishes, 106 deaneries and 11 dioceses, namely:

The General Synod convenes once a year as the highest representative body of the church. It consists of 85 representatives, of which 7 or 8 are sent from each of the dioceses. Of these, 4 are lay members of the church, appointed by the congregations; 1 is a lay member appointed by Church employees; one member of the clergy, appointed by his/her peers; a representative from the Sami community in the two northernmost dioceses; and the bishop. In addition, representatives from the three theological seminaries of the church, representatives from the Youth Council, and other members of the National Council are members.

The National Council, the synods executive body, is convened five times a year and comprises 15 members, of which 10 are lay members, four are clergy, and one is a bishop. It prepares matters for decision-making elsewhere and puts into effect those decisions. The National Council also has working and ad hoc groups as part of its mandate, including those addressing issues such as church service, education, youth issues, etc. The Council on Ecumenical and International Relations is the head of international and ecumenical matters, and the Sami Church Council is responsible for the Church of Norway's work among the country's indigenous Sami peoples.

The Bishops' Conference convenes three times a year and consists of the eleven bishops in the church. It is a deliberative body that issues opinions on various issues related to church life, theological issues, etc.

The church also convenes committees and councils both at the national (e.g. The Doctrinal Commission), diocese, and local levels, addressing specific issues to education, ecumenical matters, the Sami minority, and youth.

There are 1,600 Church of Norway churches and chapels. Parish work is led by a minister and an elected parish council. There are more than 1200 clergy (20.6% women in 2007) in the Church of Norway.

[edit] Worship

The focus of church life is the Sunday service, most commonly celebrated at 11:00 am. The liturgy is traditional, and not too dissimilar from that in use in the Catholic church. The language is entirely Norwegian, apart from the kyrie eleison, and the singing of hymns accompanied by organ music is central. A priest leads the service, wearing an alb and stole.

The Church of Norway baptizes children, and this is done as part of ordinary Sunday services.

This is a summary of the liturgy for High Mass: [2]

[edit] History

An old private altar in Hedmark, Norway
An old private altar in Hedmark, Norway

The Church of Norway traces its origins to the introduction of Christianity to Norway in the 800s. Norway was Christianized partly as a result of individual conversions, partly by force. Still, it took several hundred years to convert Norway to Christianity, culminating in 1030 with the Battle of Stiklestad, where Saint Olav was slain. He was traditionally regarded as being responsible for the conversion to Christianity. The Nordic churches were initially subordinate to the archbishop of Bremen, until a Nordic archdiocese of Lund was established in 1103. The separate Norwegian archdiocese of Nidaros (in today's Trondheim) was created in 1152, and by the end of the 1100s covered all of Norway, parts of present Sweden, Iceland, Greenland, the Isle of Man, the Orkney Islands, the Shetland Islands, the Faroe Islands, and the Hebrides. Before the Reformation, Nidaros was an important site of pilgrimage due to its association with the cult of Saint Olav.

The Reformation in Norway was accomplished in 1537 when Christian III of Denmark and Norway decreed Lutheranism as the official religion of Norway and Denmark, ending over five hundred years of subordinance to the Roman Catholic church. Monastic orders were suppressed, and the crown took over church property, while some redundant churches were destroyed or abandoned. The archdiocese was abolished, and bishops (initially called superintendents) were appointed by the king. This brought forth the integration between church and state that today's arrangement reflects. After the introduction of absolute monarchy in 1660 all clerics were civil servants appointed by the king, but theological issues were left to the hierarchy of bishops and other clergy.

When Norway regained national independence in 1814, the Norwegian Constitution recognized the Lutheran church as the State Church.

The pietism movement in Norway (embodied to a great extent by Hans Nielsen Hauge) served to reduce the distance between lay and clergy in Norway, which persists to this day. In 1873 lay congregational meetings were accepted in church life, though initially with limited influence. Unofficial plenary sessions took place every other year, and after 1982 these became official parts of church life.

After Vidkun Quisling was made head of state by the Nazi occupiers during World War II, the vast majority of Norwegian clergy and all Norwegian bishops disassociated themselves from the government, stating that they would only function as pastors for their congregations. The bishops were interned for the duration of the war, but congregational life continued more or less as usual.

Since World War II, a number of structural changes have taken place within the Church of Norway, mostly to institutionalize lay participation in the life of the church.

[edit] Current issues

The "Arctic Cathedral" in Tromsø,example of modern church architecture in Norway
The "Arctic Cathedral" in Tromsø,example of modern church architecture in Norway

There is continuous discussion about separating church and state in Norway, and currently it appears there is a majority both within Stortinget and the public to separate it. Currently, the possibility of holding a referendum about the separation is being debated. While most Norwegians use the church only for lifecycle events, a great many appreciate the tradition and institutions of the church. Although 83% of the Norwegian population belongs to the state church, only about 3% attend church services or other religious meetings more than once a month. Baptism of newborns fell from 96.8% in 1960 to 75.9% in 2005. The proportion of young people to enter into confirmation fell from 93% in 1960 to 66.2% in 2005. The proportion of all weddings to be conducted through the Church of Norway fell from 85,2% in 1960 to 45.5% in 2005. Only the proportion of funerals has remained on a high level, in 2005 93.4% of all funerals took place in the Church of Norway. [2] [3]

It has recently been revealed that due to a poor quality of the membership register, around 75,000 Norwegians who are members of other religious or humanist organisations have wrongfully been registered as members of the church. [4] An equally large number of persons who are not members of any faith-based organisation might also be registered as members of the church without their knowledge, as a result the official membership numbers are slightly inflated compared to the real figures. [5] Although there is no indication that this has been a conscious policy of the church, the inaccurate membership register has led to the church possibly receiving unlawfully hundreds of millions of Norwegian Crowns (NOK) over the last decade, as the Norwegian state contributes between 500 and 600 NOK to religious and humanist organisations for each registered member. Naturally, this has led to stark criticism from organisations that might have lost income due to the inaccuracy of the membership register of the Norwegian church.

In spite of the relative low level of religious practice in Norwegian society, the church in many cases functions as a provider of social services of last resort, and local clergy often play important social roles outside their spiritual and ritual responsibilities. In 2004 a survey conducted by Opinion AS showed that only 47% of the responders actually considered themselves Christians, while 49% did not consider themselves Christians. [6] Another survey conducted by Gallup International in 65 countries in 2005 found that Norway was the least religious among the Western countries surveyed, only 36% of the population considered themselves religious. However, only 9% explicitly stated that they were atheists, while the biggest group, 46%, were those that considered themselves neither religious nor atheists. [7]

Certain bishops' stance on whether gay and lesbians can serve as ministers is under continuous debate, [8] and the church has weighed in on political issues from time to time, resulting in considerable controversy. [9] 2007 the church voted to allow blessings in their parishes. [10]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kirken.no - Medlemskap i kirken
  2. ^ Welcome to the Church of Norway
  3. ^ Kirken.no - Statistikk
  4. ^ Askøyværingen - Forside
  5. ^ http://www.human.no/templates/Page____2459.aspx
  6. ^ Kristne er i mindretall- Nyheter - Innenriks - Aftenposten.no
  7. ^ [1]
  8. ^ Bishop overruled on gay pastor's hiring - Aftenposten.no
  9. ^ Church of Norway
  10. ^ Norway Moves To Legalize Gay Marriage

[edit] External links