Prediction: Church and State to Seperate

Young people in particular no longer wish to pay church tax to the state

There is increasing agreement among a number of leading church figures such as Bishop Emeritus Erik Norman Svendsen, Bishop Kjeld Holm, Biskop Karsten Nissen and Professor of Church History Martin Schwartz Laustsen who have recently stated their belief that the Danish Lutheran Church and the Danish State will be separated within the foreseeable future. As secularism broadens and other faiths spread through Denmark the special status of the Danish Lutheran Church is under attack, also from fellow-Christians such as the Roman Catholics. Church and State have been linked since the country acquired its democratic constitution in 1849, which states that ‘the Evangelical Lutheran Church is the Danish people’s church and as such is supported by the state.’ But now the young in particular want the two clearly divided. A recent Ramboell Analysis of 18 to 25-year-olds had nearly half in favour of a separation and only a third against.

Danes are leaving the church at a steady rate (10,000 in 2009) and other faiths and Christian denominations are gaining ground, due to the arrival of immigrant Muslims, Polish Catholics and internationally-oriented churches. Why should atheists and Catholics have to pay a church tax to the Lutherans? is the understandable argument. "The separation is coming," says Bishop of Aarhus Kjeld Holm," Many young people feel that the balance between church and state no longer works. And many pastors feel that the church is losing its freedom; that the state and politicians are interfering too much."

However, Pastor Poul Joachim Stender of Kirke Saaby and Kisserup parish in mid-Zealand fears that a separation will lead to groups of elite Christians running their own churches to success or failure. "There will be no room for the ‘man in the street’who comes perhaps just once a year. That’s what has happened in Sweden, since church and state separated in 2000."

Church as service institution

At the same time the state is burdening the parish councils with more and more paperwork. Under the current system the parish council is the employer: it is they who choose the pastors, appoint church personnel and deliberate over the use of the money collected by the state via the national church tax of c. 0.7% and redistributed according to parish size. One example of the pressure is the new regulations requiring each parish council to negotiate pay with its personnel annually. In Denmark the church secretary is a trained administrator, whereas the chair of the parish council can be anyone – with or without professional experience of personal pay negotiations. In a recent article in the daily Information, many pastors argued that the trend towards the church being a service institution for the state would be stopped in its tracks if the two were separated.

　

Lutheran Church membership by Scandinavian country Iceland: 1998: 89,3 procent 2008: 79,1 procent Sweden: 1999: 85 procent 2009: 74 procent Norway: 1999: 85,7 procent 2009: 80,7 procent Finland: 1999: 86 procent 2007: 81,7 procent Denmark: 1999: 85,4 procent 2009: 81,5 procent

 

 

By: Edward Broadbridge

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