The Diocese of Agder og Telemark Agder og Telemark bispedømme) is a diocese of the Church of Norway, covering the counties of Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder in Norway. The diocese was created in 1925 as the Diocese of Agder, with the name being changed to the Diocese of Agder og Telemark in 2005.
Contents |
In 1125 Stavanger became a diocese, after first being a part of the Diocese of Bjørgvin. This new diocese stretched from the coast of Haugesund in the west to Gjernestangen between Risør and Kragerø, later the border stretched to Eidanger in the east. Stavanger was the cathedral city.
In 1682 Christian V, King of Denmark-Norway, issued an order that the Bishop and the Prefect were to be moved to the cathedral of Kristiansand, which had been consecrated 1646 and which the King intended be perfect site for a new cathedral. The citizens of Stavanger protested, with the Prefect and the Bishop refusing to move and ignoring the order. It took two years before Kristiansand was establsihed as the new cathedral city. The new name of the diocese became "Christiansands stift", and this later became the Diocese of Agder og Telemark.
The upper part of Telemark had been transferred from the Diocese of Oslo to the Diocese of Stavanger in 1631 - and the rest of Telemark was transferred from Oslo to Kristiansand in 1864. In that same year, the parish of Røldal was transferred from Kristiansand to the Diocese of Bjørgvin.
The diocese consists of 67 parishes and 147 congregations. As at 1 January 2003, 347,324 members of the Church of Norway were in the diocese. The current bishop is Olav Skjevesland.
Kristiansand Cathedral is the main church of Agder and Telemark Diocesan and parish church for the Church in Kristiansand. In 1682, there was a small church built of wood on site in Kristiansand. A new cathedral was built of stone and consecrated by Bishop Hans Munch in 1696, but burned down in 1734. The city's second cathedral was consecrated in 1738 by Bishop Jacob Kærup. This cathedral was destroyed in the city fire of 1880.
The present church is the third cathedral in the city and the fourth church in the town square in Kristiansand. The church was built after a drawing by the architect Henrik Thrap-Meyer. The church is described as neo-gothic style. The building is 70 meters long and 39 meters wide, and the tower is 70 meters high. The Cathedral has a beautiful wooden ceiling and six beautiful stained glass windows with Biblical themes. [1]
In order to exploit the ancient walls of the church that burned in 1880, the altar was placed against the west, while the churches generally tend to have the altar in the east. Building work was completed on 1 February 1885. The church was consecrated on 18 March 1885 with Johan M. Brun as acting bishop. [2]
|
|||||