Who wants a Lutheran synod in Denmark?

Bishops seek a stronger profile for the church’s ‘internal matters’

Five years ago the prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen (now General Secretary of NATO), told the daily newspaper Politiken that the Danish state as such had no religion; that the church should not be able to exercise any external power; and that no one should be allowed to speak on its behalf.

But three years later half the candidates for the vacant bishopric of Copenhagen said that they either wanted, or expected, the Danish Lutheran Church to move in the direction of creating a synod that would allow the church to have a representative voice. The successful episcopal candidate, Peter Skov-Jacobsen, said at the time: “I could imagine a Church Council made up of the lay chairs of the 10 diocesan councils, the chairs of the Pastors’ Union, the National Association of Parish Councils, and so on.”

A church without representation
In the January 2011 edition of Dansk Kirketidende (Danish Church Times) Bishop of Haderslev, Niels Henrik Arendt, has gone one step further in arguing that the church needs clear and visible leadership: “When parliament asks the church for its position on whether homosexual couples should have a church ritual to bless their partnerships, the church cannot come up with an answer, since no one represents it.”

Section 4 of the Constitution (from 1849) states that “the Evangelical Lutheran Church is the people’s church (folkekirken) and is supported as such by the state... [its] constitution is regulated by law”. But the folkekirken has never had a formal constitution defining its powers. Bishop Arendt says, “I believe the church should be allowed to prioritise its resources and to make a joint response, when asked to. At some point we must grow up and say that we are old enough to decide for ourselves.”  

There are three pressing points he emphasises as influencing his position:

•    The church is gradually being taken over by the state
•    No one can speak ‘on behalf of the church’ as regards registered partnerships
•    Many look to the bishops as constituting the leadership of the church, but they have no official or legal basis as such in reality

“We need a body that has legitimacy”
Support for an official organ to speak on behalf of the church comes from Bishop of Roskilde, Peter Fischer-Moeller: “We need a church body that can discuss and make proposals on ‘internal matters’, a body that has legitimacy within the church. What we are not arguing for is a separation of church and state.”

On 9 May this year the Association for Ecclesiastical Law (Selskab for kirkeret) is holding a seminar at Copenhagen University on the subject: “A Church Constitution – Why and How?” The association’s chair, Peter Christensen says: “We are seeking to challenge the folkekirke. We wish it to be heard, for instance when bills are put forward in parliament that are relevant to it, and not least relevant to its economy.”

But there is also opposition to the move, notably from Bishop of Elsinore, Lise-Lotte Rebel: “Our decentralised organisation is one of our strengths. It may tend to anarchy now and again, but I do not wish to see power centralised into a single powerful council.”

 

Edward Broadbridge

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