New Christian Council of Norway to Include All Major Churches
Two church groupings in Norway have agreed to form a national body that will include all the major churches in the country. The new body will be formally inaugurated on 1 September 2006. It will include all the major Christian denominations - Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Orthodox, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic.
The impending merger was agreed at separate meetings of the Christian Council of Norway (CCN) and the Norwegian Free Church Council on 30 March.
Established in 1992 as a national council of churches with a broad ecumenical agenda, the CCN groups all major denominations except the Pentecostal movement. The Council of Free Churches was founded in 1903 as an instrument for the free churches to promote their religious rights in a country where the (Lutheran) Church of Norway was a state church.
The willingness of representatives of the Pentecostal movement to work together with the Catholic Church is seen as a key element in the founding of the new church body.
The two church groupings that are merging have shared offices at Oslo’s Church House since 2000.
(Ecumenical News International)
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