http://www.interchurch.dk/ Seneste nyt fra http://www.interchurch.dk/ da-DK http://www.interchurch.dk/typo3conf/ext/tt_news/ext_icon.gif http://www.interchurch.dk/ 18 16 Seneste nyt fra http://www.interchurch.dk/ TYPO3 - get.content.right http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:09:00 +0200 http://www.interchurch.dk/news/news/article/16-copenhagen-churches-to-close/ But not all of them will go quietly 16 churches from 6 Copenhagen deaneries have been listed for closure by the Diocesan Council of Copenhagen. The main reason given is demographic changes over the years leading to underuse and overspending to keep ailing churches alive.

“In the course of the last 50 years the population has decreased markedly in many areas,” says Bishop of Copenhagen, Peter Skov-Jakobsen in a press release. “It has been a difficult decision. These churches contain many feelings, for here people have worshipped and rejoiced over new births and new loves and mourned their losses and sad memories. But the Diocesan Council has agreed unanimously that we must adapt to the changing circumstances.

Chair of the Copenhagen Diocesan Council, Inge Lise Pedersen, adds that closing some churches will strengthen others nearby.

Aalholm Kirke fights for its life
In the coming months the 16 churches will be able to argue their case before the list is handed to the Minister for Church Affairs, Manu Sareen, in November for the final decision. One church that will fight its corner is Aalholm Kirke in the suburb of Valby, where Pastor Ole Petersen finds it difficult to understand the decision to close his church. “We have on average 45 churchgoers at Sunday service“, he tells the daily, Berlingske Tidende. “We are financially viable, and have an active congregational life. The decision is simply wrong.”

Aalholm Parish Council is fighting the diocesan decision. On their website and elsewhere they are drumming up support with 4 major reasons for staying open:

1. You don’t close a ’branch’ that is making a profit; you close one that isn’t.
2. There are 5 other churches in our deanery with a lower membership percentage than ours, which is 69.17 %. A number of other parishes also have fewer members to keep their church running, whereas Aalholm has 5,142 church members.
3. Aalholm Kirke was built through house-to-house collections during the 1930s. It really is ’our church’, and it would be immoral, almost a theft, to take it from us.
4. Our budgets have always been sensible and stuck to, whereas other parishes have spent millions on community centres, modernising or renovating their churches, buying expensive works of art etc.

We shall return to this subject at a later date.

By Edward Broadbridge]]> Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:09:00 +0200 http://www.interchurch.dk/news/news/article/lwf-general-secretary-visits-denmark/ In mid-April the Council on International Relations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark...
Ecumenical sensitivity
Among the subjects touched upon were the council’s work with international relations, Martin Junge’s visions for the future, and the preparations for the celebration of 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. He later commented on the ups and downs of the ecumenical movement to the Christian Daily: “I am aware of the phrase, “the ecumenical winter”, but as leader of a global community, I have learned that it is never winter everywhere in the world at the same time…We see greater collaboration in Africa and Asia, even in Europe… Winter is also nature’s way of waiting for spring blossoms. Our dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church continues, based on our joint declaration on the doctrine of justification from 1999. We hope that this document will help local churches to move towards the Anniversary of the Reformation with ecumenical sensitivity.”

Issues and results
Among the pre-anniversary initiatives that the LWF is taking is a pilot scheme to link young people
via the internet in order to discuss and act on issues of current relevance. If this ‘action without presence’ proves successful, the initiative will be confirmed and extended to international congregational links.
    
Martin Junge was also interested in hearing the Danish church’s experiences in the current debate on gay marriage. In his meeting with Bishop of Copenhagen, Peter Skov-Jakobsen, general perspectives were discussed for the Lutheran church, in general and for Denmark’s church in particular.
    
Martin Junge later invited Minster for Church Affairs, Manu Sareen, to visit the LWF secretariat in Geneva.

By Edward Broadbridge See more photos by Arni Svanur Danielsson here]]> Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:52:00 +0200 http://www.interchurch.dk/news/news/article/the-six-greatest-challenges-for-young-pastors/ Retiring Professor of Theology passes on his observations
1. Commitment
Young pastors are often faced with a lack of commitment in their parish. Church members do not realise that they have a duty to their church and its community. They identify their church as the pastor’s responsibility and they offer little support. Pastors try hard to make people feel at home in the church, but it’s an uphill struggle.
 
2. Communication
The loss of tradition has made its presence felt. There is an enormous lack of knowledge as to the content of Christianity and the importance it has had for society. How do we then talk to people? How do we educate parents and godparents who at baptism have promised to bring up children as Christians? How do we communicate with people when we hold services that no one understands because our religion has become a foreign language?

3. Prejudice
Young pastors are affected by the negative stories about the church and are frustrated over the level of Christian debate. They feel they are constantly having to defend the church and its very existence, while meeting a massive wall of prejudice in the press. Add to this the aggressive demands from atheists that all public space should be value-neutral. It is a major challenge for young pastors to make the church known for what its stands for and to present the good stories that also exist. The mixing of religions in the prevailing syncretism is a further challenge.

4. Structure
Structural changes pose difficulties, not least in the depopulation of the country parishes and the loss of members in the city parishes.  There is also a lack of will for change, with too many resources being spent on church buildings and a growing uncertainty about the various church appointments. The framework of the church does not meet its people’s expectations, and there is a vagueness as to what the church is meant to be.

5. Languor and overload
There is a languor pervading congregations and parish councils, tending towards stubbornness. Young pastors are challenged to make church members visionary and encourage them towards renewal. The parish council is an out-of-date form of organisation, overloaded by constant new administrative tasks. It takes a long time to work out new accounting systems, rules and regulations. The church is seen as overburdened with bureaucracy, and pastors find it difficult to flourish in the church hierarchy.

6. The pastor’s role
Among the positive features are a local patriotism and a general, though uncommitted, support for the church. But pastors are challenged in relation to their own commitment because there are so many calls on their time. They lack the space for study and introspection, and their striving for closer relations within their pastorate can end in loneliness.


By Edward Broadbridge/Viggo Mortensen]]> Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:04:00 +0200 http://www.interchurch.dk/news/news/article/grundtvig-with-clump-and-clod/ TRIOfabula bring the great man to life for children
Do the right thing
TRIOfabula’s children’s theatre is especially designed for church interiors and includes dramas on the Creation, Noah’s Ark, Jonah and the Whale, and the Easter story. Now they have decided to take on Grundtvig. The 3 actresses, Ingvil Bjaastad, Lisa Balle, and Tine Skau (also writer and director) have devised a 50-minute production that invites children and adults directly into their portrayal of Grundtvig from young boy to old man – through his spiritual and political battles, his ups and downs, and his life and loves. The red thread is that Grundtvig wants to do ‘the right thing’, but he’s a bit of a clodhopper. Most children can relate to this.

Clump and Clod
Grundtvig is accompanied by his two friends Clump and Clod from the Down-to-Earth People, to whom Grundtvig often refers in his writings. Through the judicious use of puppets, the cast also introduce the king and queen of Denmark as well as Grundtvig’s parents, wives, and friends. The three actresses are all musicians, so Grundtvig also gets to play the trumpet, while the audience sing along to the slide-projected lyrics of some of the best-known hymns such as Lovely is the midnight sky, We welcome with joy this blesséd day, and Hail, our reconciling Saviour!

"The Down-to-Earth People” are clay and porridge,” says Tine Skau… ”what we all come from if we stick a finger into the ground. Children understand this, they’ve all dared one another to eat a worm and they’ve all jumped into a muddy hole or a puddle. Clump and Clod are there to help Grundtvig especially when he gets above himself. We hope that children can learn to open up to one another and hold on to the community spirit that we can create with one another.

TRIOfabula’s enthusiasm for Grundtvig is infectious. On the way out of Orte Church on Funen the 5th graders are still rapping: “Who do we dig? Grundtvig!”


By Edward Broadbridge]]> Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:48:00 +0200 http://www.interchurch.dk/news/news/article/baptised-on-the-helicopter-deck/ Pastor, cadet, and melting ice water
On board the Absalon is naval chaplain, Pastor Peter Thyssen, who normally holds the Sunday service in the ship’s cafeteria before a cross flanked by two candles. But when one of the serving naval cadets from the Royal Danish Naval Academy asked Pastor Thyssen if he could be baptised onboard, the answer was of course yes. However unusual the request, it only requires a baptiser and some water. So on this particular Sunday the congregation moved out onto the helicopter deck.

The makeshift font was put together by another crew member in the form of a metre-high stand containing a large lump of ice. The melting equatorial sun blazed down on the font and allowed Pastor Thyssen to perform the baptism before all the ice had turned to water! After the service the congregation retired to the helicopter hangar to celebrate with the cadet. Further pictures from the ceremony can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/76201985@N06/


By Edward Broadbridge]]> Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:23:00 +0200 http://www.interchurch.dk/news/news/article/church-tax-increases-by-EUR40-million/ Professionals require professional salaries
Privileged position of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark
Only the Danish Lutheran Church is allowed to raise taxes. Income for all other denominations is through private donation or church funds. The increase does not look much on paper, but in cool cash it amounts to €40 million. Minister for Church Affairs, Manu Sareen, has called for a curb on church expenditure!

Church tax is the most important source of its income and constitutes some 75 % of the church’s budget. The remainder is paid by the state, including part of the salaries of its 2,000 pastors. But it is the individual parish council and deanery that decide the size of the local church tax. In 2011 this amounted to €800 million, while the state also paid the church a grant of €134 million.

Increase in professional services
The problem is that while actual worship may be less popular, church social activities are decidedly not. A suburban church may draw only 50 parishioners to the Sunday service, but up to 1,000 churchgoers can pass through its doors in the course of a week to other services, religious and social, not least through the church’s links with local schools and a string of talks and concerts. The other main cause for the increase is the ministry’s requirement for more professionalism in the churches, meaning more personnel, computerised and increasingly professionally audited accounts, and the purchase of up-to-date IT equipment. Two-thirds of the increase actually comes from pay rises negotiated by the ministry!

”It’s a problem that it is the ministry alone that negotiates with the professional associations (pastors, organists etc.) and the trade unions (vergers, cemetery keepers etc.) as regards salaries,” says Poul Langagergaard, church consultant and church council member, “but it’s the local deanery and the individual church that must find the money out of the government grants.”

]]> Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:17:00 +0100 http://www.interchurch.dk/news/news/article/confirmation-is-just-around-the-corner/ 50,000 youngsters prepare for the great day
Confirmation is also a lucrative party
Numbers are down from 80% of a school year in 1998 to c. 70% in 2011, but that still amounts to some 50,000 youngsters being confirmed this year. The day in question is a family-and-friends celebration and is followed by “Blue Monday” when the youngsters are given the day off school to do their own thing. This typically takes the form of going as a class to Tivoli, go-kart racing, shopping, concerts and parties etc. with a not inconsiderable amount of cash available after a lucrative party the day before.

The Confirmation Ritual
First instituted in 1736, the actual confirmation ritual within the Sunday service consists of the following:

1.    The pastor gives a short sermon for the confirmands
2.    The confirmands say the creed aloud
3.    Before the altar the confirmands acknowledge that they wish to be confirmed in the Christian faith.
4.    The confirmands kneel and are blessed by the pastor, who in most cases gives them a personal word of scripture to remember
5.    Together, pastor and confirmands say the Lord’s Prayer

The full confirmation ritual in an English translation is available in Hymns in English (Vajsenhuset, Copenhagen, 2009) and at the website:
www.interchurch.dk/materialer/salmer-og-liturgier-paa-fremmedsprog/english/

“Everyone likes presents…!”
14-year-old Anton Hog Laursen from Roende spoke recently to Maria Evald of the Christian Daily about his upcoming confirmation: “I want to be confirmed because I believe in God. My parents left it to me to decide, and I want to confirm my baptism and prove to myself that I’m a Christian. I look forward to praying the Lord’s Prayer with the others. My parents prayed it with me before bedtime when I was a child and I still say it once a week, perhaps if I feel scared or if I’m about to play in a football match.”

Asked about the presents he will receive, he says, “Everyone likes presents, but for me they’re just a bonus. Confirmation for me is like 70 per cent about God and 30 per cent about presents.”

]]> Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:12:00 +0100 http://www.interchurch.dk/news/news/article/gay-church-weddings-from-15-june/ Government plans welcomed by the majority
Pastors who are unwilling to perform the ceremony will be exempted, but their parish will then be expected to find a pastor willing to replace them for the occasion. A further question is whether registered partners will have to be ‘unregistered’, i.e. ‘divorced’, before they can be married, since otherwise the church will be remarrying civilly married couples. At present civilly married couples can be given a church blessing but not a wedding.

“We are Christians, and we’ve always gone to church”
Gays throughout the country have welcomed the announcement. Among those who have spoken to the Christian Daily are sales director Stig Elling and his registered partner Steen Andersen. Stig Elling has already booked the church for their wedding on 15 June. “We are Christians, and we’ve always gone to church. As things are now, we can receive a blessing, but that’s not what we want.”

Protests against the announcement have also followed, not least about the swiftness of the decision, but the government is standing firm. Minister for Church Affairs and Gender Equality, Manu Sareen, underlines that the subject has been discussed since 1989, and that the government has long since announced its intentions.

]]> Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:39:00 +0100 http://www.interchurch.dk/news/news/article/walking-and-worshipping/ Massive support for Church-to-Church Walk Last year in Copenhagen an ecumenical walk was arranged that took participants from Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist congregations on a walk to each other’s places of worship. This year,  for the 58th time, Christians have conducted their own Church-to-Church evening walk in the centre of Copenhagen. Jens Christian Bjoernskov was among the 1,000 participants this year. He is gaining work experience with the National Council of Churches in Denmark (Danske Kirkers Raad) as part of his diaconal training for a BA in the new degree of Christianity, Culture and Communication. Here is his report:

Five churches visited
“We gather in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. There are no seats left! It’s even hard to find standing room. 1,000 people are singing hymns – amazing! There are pastors from all denominations in the procession with the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox in front. Later we shall visit their churches, the Methodist and Anglican churches, and the Swedish Lutheran church as well.

“We have reached the Russian Orthodox church, where we walk up the red carpet like royalty! Again it’s standing-room only. The candles are lit and the short service begins. I admire the beautiful handicraft, the many biblical pictures hanging in the room, and the Russian mystique. In the Methodist church the hymns have a rhythmic feel, The Roman Catholic incense is almost too much for me, while the short Anglican service is all in English! Finally in the Swedish Lutheran church we all wish each other God’s blessings on our lives.

“It’s been a pleasure to walk from church to church and appreciate the preparations for our participation. Everywhere we were welcomed and everywhere we had an enjoyable experience.”

]]> Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:36:00 +0100 http://www.interchurch.dk/news/news/article/church-and-culture-programme/ Faculty of Theology invites on 1 September to 1 December 2012 The Programme has had participants from a great number of countries in Africa e.g. Egypt, Nigeria, Tanzania and Madagascar, Asia, e.g. China, India, Malaysia and Mongolia and USA and Europe. 

Theme for Autumn 2012 The programme has dealt with all kinds of issues relating to the question of Christianity and Culture. The Church and Culture Programme in Copenhagen Autumn 2012 will focus on 
Danish Theology in International Contexts

During the term from September to December three parallel courses will be conducted on the cultural and religious setting in Denmark and on the contributions by two outstanding Danish theologians in the 19th Century: N.F. S. Grundtvig and Søren Kierkegaard, whom we will study in their international contexts. To this will be added optional courses and special lectures and seminars on topics related to the main theme.
Programme for Autumn 2012 The programme includes three courses from 1 September to 1 December 2012: Christianity and Secularism in Denmark (three periods a week)
Course instructor: Hans Raun Iversen

Introduction to Søren Kierkegaard's Authorship (three periods a week)
Course instructor: Brian Söderquist 

Text and Contexts. Methodology and Theology from Grundtvig and Global Christianity (three periods a week)
Course instructor: Jonas Adelin Jørgensen

Read more on the website.]]> Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:29:00 +0100