wfn.org | Ole Christian M. Kvarme New Bishop of Oslo

["Frank Imhoff" <Frank.Imhoff@elca.org>]

Ole Christian M. Kvarme New Bishop of Oslo
April 3 Installation of Gunnar Stalsett's Successor

OSLO, Norway/GENEVA, 30 March 2005 (LWI) - On March 11, Norway's King
Harald V together with the Council of State appointed Rt Rev. Ole
Christian Mælen Kvarme as the new bishop of Oslo Diocese, Church of
Norway.

Kvarme will be installed into his new position on April 3 during a service
at the Oslo Cathedral. He succeeds Rev. Dr Gunnar J. Stalsett who headed
the diocese from 1998 until his retirement on March 1. Stalsett, who
turned 70 on February 10, was general secretary of the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) from 1985 to 1994.

The Oslo bishop-elect has been head of the Borg diocese since 1998.

Bishop Finn Wagle, president of the Bishops' Conference congratulated
Kvarme on his appointment as Oslo bishop. "We have seen a strong involvement of both church and society in the election process. This says a great
deal about the significance of the ministry into which Bishop Kvarme now
enters. Now it is time to gather around the bishop-elect who has been
appointed in the light of a strong church vote. As the president of the
Bishops' Conference, I look forward to continue the good cooperation with
Bishop Ole Christian M. Kvarme," Wagle said.

In August 2004 the Oslo diocesan council nominated seven candidates for
Stalsett's successor. One more candidate was included after a vote by the
Oslo Diocese parish councils and pastors. There were four eligible
candidates in the final round, three men and one woman: Dean Trond
Bakkevig; General Secretary Helen Bjornoy; Bishop Kvarme; and Erling J.
Pettersen, Director of the Church of Norway National Council.

The bishop of Norway's capital city, Oslo, traditionally has a prominent
position in society, because of the close proximity to the government,
parliament and royal family.

Ole Christian M. Kvarme was born on 11 November 1948 in Molde. He obtained
his theological education at the Free Faculty of Theology in Oslo, and
additionally studied Hebrew, rabbinism and judaistics. He served as a
missionary pastor in Haifa, Israel. He was General Secretary of the
Norwegian Bible Society between 1986-96, prior to which he managed the
Caspari Center for Biblical and Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. Before his
appointment as Bishop of Borg in 1998, Kvarme was Dean of Oslo.

Kvarme was leader of the national ecumenical committee for the Jubilee
2000 celebrations in Norway. He has served on several management boards
including the Free Faculty of Theology in Oslo, and Christian daily, Vart
Land. He was a member of the Lutheran-Adventist Conversations group, a
dialogue group of the LWF and General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. He has written several books on the Jewish roots of the church.

The Church of Norway has 3.9 million members, representing around 86
percent of the national population. It has been an LWF member church since
1947. (478 words)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 138
member churches in 77 countries all over the world, with a membership of
nearly 66 million Christians. The LWF acts on behalf of its member
churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith
relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication,
and the various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat
is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service. Unless
specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or
opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an
article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced
with acknowledgment.]

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