February 2017 Church & State - February 2017

Around The World: Norway Partially Separates Church And State

  AU admin

After 500 years of serving as the official state church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway was partially separated from the government on Jan. 1.

Under the new arrangement, Norway’s 1,250 priests and bishops will no longer be employees of the state who are appointed by the king and whose salaries are paid by taxes. The groundwork for the division was laid nine years ago, and is now coming to fruition.

But the change is far from complete separation. While the Church of Norway is no longer the official church of the country of five million, it will remain the “national” church and will still receive some forms of state support.

Advocates for full separation of church and state say the recent move doesn’t go far enough. 

“As long as the Constitution says that the Church of Norway is Norway’s national church and that it should be supported by the state, we still have a state church,” Kristin Mile, secretary general of the Norwegian Humanist Association, said. 

Like much of Western Europe and Scandinavia, Norway is seeing the growth of cultural secularism. A 2005 survey by Gallup found that only 36 percent of Norwegians considered themselves religious, and the Church of Norway, despite its informal designation as “the People’s Church,” has been losing members since it set up a website in August allowing people to go online and end their membership.  

For Nex and all 2SLGBTQ+ students in Oklahoma

Remove Ryan Walters

We are calling for the Oklahoma Legislature to immediately remove Ryan Walters from his position as Oklahoma Superintendent and to begin an investigation into the Oklahoma Department of Education’s policies that have led to a the rampant harassment of 2SLGBTQ+ students.

Sign The Petition