A Church of Norway two-fer

The Church of Norway has established the office of Presiding Bishop, and the first person to hold that position is a woman. She is Bishop Helga Haugland Byfuglien.

Her appointment means that for the first time, the Porvoo Communion will have a primate who is a woman. Meanwhile another member of the Porvoo Communion, the Church of England, has not decided whether women may be bishops although the handwriting is on the wall. Meanwhile, if one visits she cannot wear her mitre. In the Anglican Communion some male primates have refused to have communion with that communion's only female primate, or even to be in the same room with her.

David Hamid, suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Europe opines:

The Church of Norway has made a bold move as it establishes the office of permanent Presiding Bishop. The Church has appointed Bishop Helga Haugland Byfuglien to this new office. Bishop Helga thus becomes the first woman "Primate" of a Church within the Porvoo Communion of Churches. As the Church of Norway is the state Church Bishop Helga was chosen by the Minister for Church affairs after the unanimous recommendation from the Bishops' Conference and the National Church Council.

.... The official inauguration of the new office and the appointment of the new bishop will be celebrated in the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim on Sunday, 2nd October.

In a related development, on April 1st Bishop Byfuglien ruled passive members of the church could no longer vote in church elections. According to a news report, Church Passive lose voting rights, "At least three times before Election Day 12 September vote seekers must reconcile themselves to worship. The new attendance must be certified by a priest, sexton or parish council chairman after each service."

Posted by John B. Chilton on April 5, 2011 7:10 AM | |
Comments (4)

This is cheering news, & gladly received. One doubts, but hopes, that it will have some measure of impact & create some measure of openness, however small, in other areas of God's earth. :)

Posted by Bill Nichols [TypeKey Profile Page] | April 5, 2011 8:32 AM

Am I mistaken, or doesn't the Church of Sweden also have a woman as their head? Or are they not part of the Porvoo Communion? Or, is this not the same as a Primate?

Posted by Matthew Buterbaugh+ [TypeKey Profile Page] | April 5, 2011 10:43 AM

@ Matthew Buterbaugh
You're mistaken about Sweden. The current archbishop of the Church of Sweden is Anders Wejryd. He's a really charming/charismatic fellow whom I was privileged to meet (if only briefly) last year. The Church of Sweden is a member of the Porvoo communion.

Posted by Jeffrey L. Shy, M.D. [TypeKey Profile Page] | April 5, 2011 11:04 AM

@Matthew, @Jeffrey - Anders Wejryd is indeed the primate of the Church of Sweden, by virtue of his being the Archbishop of Uppsala. I suspect, Matthew, that you may be thinking instead of Eva Brunne, the Bishop of Stockholm, the national capital, who is not only a woman (as was her predecessor) but the world's first lesbian bishop in the historic episcopate. (Or, at least, the first in a major denomination that claims the historic episcopate, as opposed to various Old/Independent Catholic groups outside the Union of Utrecht.)

In any event, what a wonderful development for Norway and Porvoo!

Posted by David Cornell [TypeKey Profile Page] | April 5, 2011 8:37 PM

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