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Norway and its national church part ways
The Arctic Cathedral, or Ishavskatedralen, of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Norway in Tromsø, Norway.
By Kimberly Winston | 19 hours ago
(RNS) Norway and its church are getting a divorce — or maybe they’re just separating.
On Jan. 1, the Scandinavian country cut some ties with its Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Norway, rewording the national constitution to change the denomination from “the state’s public religion” to “Norway’s national church.”
The change means the nation of just over 5 million people — about 82 percent of them Evangelical-Lutherans — will still fund the church but will no longer appoint its clergy, who will still be considered civil servants.
And like most divorces, this one could be messy. Norway is one of the least theistic nations in Europe, with 39 percent of Norwegians saying they are atheist or agnostic, according to a poll conducted by a Norwegian newspaper earlier this year.
http://religionnews.com/2017/01/05/norway-and-its-national-church-part-ways/
