wfn.org | UMNS# 328-Norwegian pastor explores Sami roots

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Norwegian pastor explores Sami roots

Jun. 1, 2005

NOTE: A related article, UMNS #327, may be used as a sidebar to this
story.

By Linda Bloom

NEW YORK (UMNS) - A United Methodist pastor from Norway made a personal
connection of his own while attending the Fourth Session of the
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations.

The Rev. Yngvar Ruud, who serves a church in the suburbs of Oslo, noted
that his grandfather was part of an indigenous Scandinavian people
called the Sami, belonging to the Svonni and Partapouli families.

"When I grew up, it was kind of shameful to be of Sami origin," he
explained. But when Ruud was appointed in 1996 to a church in northern
Norway, the region where he grew up, he began to dig into his roots.

The Sami form an ethnic minority in Norway, Sweden and Finland, along
with a small population on Russia's Kola Peninsula. In Norway, the legal
status of the Sami improved during the 1980s.

The first Sami convention, which resulted in the celebration of Sami Day
on Feb. 6, was hosted in 1917 by the Methodist Church of Trondheim, Ruud
reported.

At Soltun Folkehogskole, a United Methodist school in northern Norway,
the architect used Sami inspiration to design the chapel there, which is
formed like a Sami lavvo or tent.

Ruud was invited to attend the forum, which met May 16-27, when Liberato
Bautista, an executive with the United Methodist Board of Church and
Society, visited Norway in January 2004 and they discussed their common
background of being part of an indigenous group.

"It was the first time that I represented my Sami people as a United
Methodist," Ruud said, adding that he was not very knowledgeable about
global indigenous issues. "It was very challenging to realize that I
belong to a world wide people and I will never forget the opening
session with indigenous people in their dresses."

Ruud said he also appreciated being part of a United Methodist-sponsored
delegation that included Celine Cajanding, a Roman Catholic nun, and
Zaynab Ampatuan, a Muslim woman, both from Mindanao in the Philippines.
He thinks the grouping was "an important sign" at a time when some
people consider those of other faiths to be enemies.

His experience at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has made Ruud
"much more aware of my Sami identity" as well as indigenous peoples in
other parts of the world.

Ruud is the brother of United Methodist Bishop Oystein Olsen of Northern
Europe.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service
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