Norway: partial separation between state, Lutheran body
January 03, 2017
The Church of Norway—a Lutheran body—ceased to be Norway’s official “public religion” on January 1, and its ministers are no longer government employees.
“We are facing the biggest organizational change of the church since the Reformation,” said Jens-Petter Johnsen of the church’s National Council, according to the International Business Times. “The changes will create a clear separation between church and state.”
Nonetheless, the separation is not total: under the constitution, the body remains “Norway’s national church,” and it “will be supported as such by the state.”
82% of the Scandinavian nation’s 5.3 million people are Lutheran.
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