Preses (Church of Norway)

Last updated

The Preses of the Church of Norway is a titular bishop who leads the Bishops' Conference of the church as one who is primus inter pares (first, among equals). The name comes from the Latin word Praeses which means "placed before" or "at the head". [1] In 2011, the office of Preses was changed by law to be a 12th permanent bishopric within the Church of Norway. Prior to 2011, it was an elected position from within the 11 diocesan bishops that made up the Bishops' Conference of the Church of Norway.

Contents

Former Preses of the Bishops' Conference, Helga Haugland Byfuglien Helga Haugland Byfuglien.jpg
Former Preses of the Bishops' Conference, Helga Haugland Byfuglien

The first permanent Preses was Helga Haugland Byfuglien who was appointed to the position on 25 March 2011 by the Cabinet of Norway, and she officially took over on 2 October 2011 at the next meeting of the Bishops' Conference. She retired in 2020 and was replaced by Olav Fykse Tveit.[ citation needed ] The Preses is a bishop, but is the only bishop in the Church of Norway who does not oversee a diocese. Rather, this bishopric primarily oversees the work of the Bishops' Conference and the duties assigned to it by the conference. The Preses is based at the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, along with the Bishop of the Diocese of Nidaros. The Preses is also the dean of the Nidaros domprosti (deanery) in central Trondheim. [2]

History

View of the bishops in the Bishops' Conference in 2009 Biskopene-nov-09.jpg
View of the bishops in the Bishops' Conference in 2009

The Preses of the Bishops' Conference (Norwegian : Preses i Bispemøtet) was the official title of the elected leader of the Bishops' Conference since 1932. Before that time, the name was unofficially used along with "chairman" of the conference. Since 2011, the title is no longer elected, but a permanent bishopric. [2]

The Church of Norway separated from the Church of Denmark in 1814 when the union with Denmark ended. The Bishops of the Church of Norway met together rarely, with only minutes from 1877 and 1915 surviving. The Bishop of the Diocese of Kristiania served as the chairman of both meetings. This was a reflection of the fact that the royal court order of precedence from 1817 until the 1920s ranked the Bishop of Kristiania (Oslo) firmly in front of the other bishops. In 1934, the Bishops' conference was formalized by the Reglement for bispemøtene law that was adopted by Johan Ludwig Mowinckel's 3rd government such that the Bishop of Oslo was elected by the bishops as the Preses for each meeting. [2]

In 1984, the rules were adjusted so that the Preses was not elected for each individual meeting session, but rather they were elected for one year at a time. In 1998 the Bishop of Oslo, Andreas Aarflot, resigned as bishop (and preses) and the other bishops decided that the rules should be changed and that the elections for Preses should be every four years rather than annually and that it would not have to be the Bishop of Oslo. Bishop Odd Bondevik, the Bishop of the Diocese of Møre was elected, the first time a non-Oslo bishop was elected. In 2011, the government of Norway changed the law to create a permanent Preses. The first permanent Preses was Helga Haugland Byfuglien. [2]

On 17 October 2019, Olav Fykse Tveit, the current General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, was nominated to be the next Preses. He took office in 2020. [3]

List of elected Preses

List of permanent Preses

Related Research Articles

Nidaros Cathedral Church in Trøndelag, Norway

Nidaros Cathedral is a cathedral of the Church of Norway located in the city of Trondheim in Trøndelag county. It is built over the burial site of King Olav II, who became the patron saint of the nation, and is the traditional location for the consecration of new kings of Norway. It was built over a 230-year period, from 1070 to 1300 when it was substantially completed. However additional work, additions and renovations have continued intermittently since then; the most recent changes were completed in 2001. Nidaros was designated as the cathedral for the Diocese of Nidaros in 1152. After experiencing the turmoil and controversies of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, it was taken from the Catholic Church by the newly established state Church of Norway in 1537, which adopted the teachings and reforms of Martin Luther, Phillip Melanchthon, and others, becoming an Evangelical Lutheran church. Nidaros is the northernmost medieval cathedral in the world.

Odd Bondevik

Odd Bondevik was a Norwegian theologian who was the Bishop of the Diocese of Møre in the Church of Norway from 17 November 1991 until retirement in 2008. He also served as Preses of the Bishop's Conference of the Church of Norway from 1998 until 2002.

Diocese of Oslo

Oslo bishopric is the Church of Norway's bishopric for the municipalities of Oslo, Asker and Bærum. It is one of Norway's five traditional bishoprics and was founded around the year 1070.

Diocese of Borg

Borg is a diocese in the Church of Norway. The diocese includes parishes in the counties of Østfold and Akershus, excluding Asker and Bærum. It was created in 1969 by separation from the Diocese of Oslo. The cathedral city is Fredrikstad.

Diocese of Nidaros

Nidaros is a diocese in the Lutheran Church of Norway. It covers Trøndelag county in Central Norway and its cathedral city is Trondheim, which houses the well-known Nidaros Cathedral. Since 10 September 2017, the Bishop of Nidaros is Herborg Finnset. The Bishop Preses, currently Olav Fykse Tveit is also based at the Nidaros Cathedral. The diocese is divided into nine deaneries (prosti). While the Bishop Preses holds episcopal responsibility within the Nidaros domprosti (deanery) in Trondheim, the Bishop of Nidaros holds episcopal authority of the other eight deaneries as well as the language based parish of the Southern Sámi.

MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society

MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, formerly the Free Faculty of Theology and MF Norwegian School of Theology, is an accredited Norwegian Specialized University focused on Theology, Religion, Education and Social Studies, located in Oslo, Norway.

Ole Christian Kvarme Norwegian bishop of the Church of Norway (born 1948)

Ole Christian Mælen Kvarme is a Norwegian bishop of the Church of Norway. He was bishop of Oslo in the Lutheran Church of Norway from 2005 and 2017. As Bishop of Oslo, Kvarme was the personal prelate of the Norwegian Royal Family.

Eivind Berggrav Norwegian Lutheran bishop

Eivind Josef Berggrav was a Norwegian Lutheran bishop. As primate of the Church of Norway, Berggrav became known for his unyielding resistance against the Nazi occupation of Norway during World War II. Berggrav also became an important figure in 20th-century ecumenical movement and served as president of the United Bible Societies.

Finn Wagle 20th and 21st-century Norwegian bishop

Finn Wagle is a theologian and a former bishop of Nidaros in the Church of Norway. He was also the Preses and thus presided over the Bishop's Conference in the Church of Norway from 2002 until 2006.

Coronations in Norway

Coronations in Norway were held from 1164 to 1906, mostly in the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. Although a crowning ceremony was formerly mandated by the nation's constitution, this requirement was eliminated in 1908. However, Norwegian kings have since chosen voluntarily to take part in a ritual of "benediction" to mark their accession to the throne, during which the crown is present, but not physically bestowed upon the sovereign. The new ceremony retains some of the religious elements of earlier rites, while eliminating other features now considered to be "undemocratic".

Olav Fykse Tveit Norwegian theologian

Olav Fykse Tveit is a Norwegian Lutheran theologian and bishop, and the current Preses of the Bishops' Conference of the Church of Norway. He was elected to the post of general secretary of the World Council of Churches on 27 August 2009. He entered office on 1 January 2010, for a proposed term of five years, and was re-elected to a second term in July 2014. He resigned from the post in March 2020, having been elected Preses of the Bishops' Conference of the Church of Norway.

Christianity in Norway Role of Christian religion in Norway

Christianity is the largest religion in Norway. Norway has historically been called a Christian country. A majority of the population are members of the Church of Norway with 68.7% of the population officially belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway in 2019. At numerous times in history, Norway sent more missionaries per capita than any other country. This changed considerably from the 1960s. In 2004, only 12% of the population attended church services each month. Citizens born in Norway to one or two Norwegian parents are automatically added to the list of Protestant Christians in Norway, and are required to "sign out" of the church. There are two categories kept in the church's books, medlemmer ('members') and tilhørige. Members technically have to be baptised, whereas tilhørige are to be taken out of the books if not baptised by the age of 18. Norwegian citizens' tax funds are given to the Protestant Church until one registers as a member of another religious group, or as a member of the Humanist association.

Tord Godal was a Norwegian theologian and bishop for the Diocese of Nidaros. He was decorated Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1969. Godal was also a Freemason.

Helga Haugland Byfuglien

Helga Haugland Byfuglien is a bishop in the Church of Norway. She was the Preses of the Norwegian Bishops' Conference from 2010 until her retirement in 2020. Prior to that, she was the Bishop of the Diocese of Borg.

Olav Skjevesland

Olav Skjevesland was a Norwegian theologian and priest. He was the Bishop of the Diocese of Agder og Telemark from 1998 until his retirement in 2012, and since that time he was a Bishop Emeritus. He was also the Preses and thus presided over the Bishops' Conference of the Church of Norway from 2006 until 2010. During his time as a bishop, he was considered to be theologically conservative and he was opposed to letting gay priests serve in the church.

Jørgen Tandberg Norwegian politician

Jørgen Johan Tandberg was a Norwegian politician and priest. He served in the Parliament of Norway for one term and he also served as a bishop in the Church of Norway.

Norway's state church, den Norske Kirke, held elections on September 11 and 12 2011. The election dates and poll stations were the same as those of the municipal elections for Norway).

Stein Reinertsen Norwegian Lutheran clergyman (born 1960)

Stein Reinertsen is a Norwegian Lutheran clergyman who since January 2013 has been bishop in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark of the Church of Norway.

Jens Frølich Tandberg 20th-century Norwegian bishop

Jens Frølich Tandberg was the bishop of Oslo from 1912 to 1922.

Herborg Finnset

Herborg Oline Finnset is a Norwegian prelate of the Church of Norway who is the Bishop of Nidaros as of 2018.

References

  1. ↑ Radke, Gerhard (1956). "Praeses". Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft . Vol. Supplementband VIII, Achaios–Valerius. col. 598–614.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Store norske leksikon. "Bispemøte" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2017-05-07.
  3. ↑ Hanssen, Torsten (2020-01-30). "Olav Fykse Tveit ansatt som ny preses". Adresseavisen (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2020-02-05.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.