WCC NEWS: Norway's churches at center of country's efforts to heal after attacks

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World Council of Churches - News

NORWAY'S CHURCHES AT CENTER OF COUNTRY'S EFFORTS TO HEAL AFTER ATTACKS

For immediate release: 29 July 2011

Ecumenical News International
Daily News Service
29 July 2011
ENI-11-0397

By Oivind Ostang

Trondheim, 29 July 2011 (ENInews)--A Norwegian bishop addressing the recent
bombing and shooting attacks in his country said Norway has "countered
this insane terrorism by demonstrating love and solidarity."

"We have brought out a social capital we maybe even did not know was there.
We must rebuild our trust in human beings as fellow human beings," said
Church of Norway Bishop Tor Singsaas of Nidaros at the opening of the
annual St. Olav Festival in Trondheim on 28 July.

In the days since the attacks, Norwegian pastors and church workers have
joined in caring for the survivors and the victims' families, with
churches opened for people seeking comfort and community. Oslo's Lutheran
Cathedral, situated a few blocks from the damaged government buildings,
has become a center for mourners to light candles. Outside the cathedral,
flowers cover large areas and also the street.

As Norwegian police finish the complex task of indentifying victims,
burials will begin to take place all over the country, most of them in
Church of Norway churches and chapels.

On 24 July Oslo Cathedral changed its regular Sunday service into a
televised "mass of grief and hope." "We will not let fear paralyse us,"
said Church of Norway Presiding Bishop Helga Haugland Byfuglien in her
homily.

Preaching to a packed cathedral, and with Norway's royal family and
political leaders present, Byfuglien said that "In the midst of the
gruesome, something beautiful is emerging: the God-given ability of every
human being to show goodness and charity. This makes us see glimpses of
God."

Acts and messages of ecclesial condolences and support have been numerous
since the attacks on 22 July. Pope Benedict XVI expressed his compassion
in a message to Norway's King Harald V. The Ecumenical Patriarch of
Constantinople, Bartholomew I, has also expressed his deep condolences and
prayers for the souls of the lost to the Prime Minister, Jens
Stoltenberg.

On 27 July Denmark's Queen and Prime Minister participated in a memorial
service in Copenhagen's Lutheran Cathedral.  Lutheran Bishop Emeritus of
Oslo Gunnar Staalsett told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation that
Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist leaders have sent their messages of
support via the World Council of Religious Leaders.

In a letter (Link: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=888a519ab7d562882394 
)
to the Christian Council of Norway (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=ad55b6705d035ee515c4 ), the general 
secretary of the World
Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fkyse Tveit and the Moderator of
the WCC Central Committee, Rev. Dr Walter Altmann expressed their “deep
shock and sadness” concerning the attacks of last week.  “We wish to
express our deepest solidarity with the people, churches and authorities
of Norway,” they said.

After officially opening the St. Olav Festival in Trondheim on 28 July,
Norway's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Stoere, presented Nidaros
Cathedral with an icon created by monks in an Orthodox monastery in
Dekani, Kosovo. Depicting St. Olav of Norway and St. Stephen of Dekani,
the icon was presented to Stoere during his visit to Kosovo this Easter.
In his speech Stoere said the old ecclesial centre of Nidaros underlines
Norway's broad European Christian heritage.

St. Olav Festival takes place in and around Trondheim's medieval Nidaros
Cathedral, grave church of Norway's patron saint Olav II Haraldsson
(995-1030).  The festival has in recent decades grown into a forceful
reminder of Christianity's long lineage in Norway and other Nordic
countries--which many people feel has been gravely exploited by last
week's terrorist attacks.

(Additional reporting by the World Council of Churches)

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The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness 
and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of 
churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, 
Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million 
Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman 
Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, 
from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.



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