The Norwegian State and the Church of Norway

Norway has an official Protestant State Church based on the Evangelical-Lutheran religion. Although there is no separation of Church and State, all inhabitants have the right to exercise their religion freely in accordance with a 1964 amendment to the Constitution. Nine out of ten ethnic Norwegians are members of the State Church of Norway. The Church of Norway is headed by the King of Norway, with the Storting as the supreme legislative body. The Royal Family is obligated to practise the Evangelical-Lutheran religion.

In practical terms, it is the King in Council that is responsible for the overall government control of the Church. The Ministry of Cultural and Church Affairs has been given the administrative responsibility while the Storting (Norwegian national assembly) is in charge of adopting church-related legislation and budgets. All bishops and deans are appointed by the Government. The top ecclesiastical body is the General Synod.

Norwegian religious expression is largely private; whereas most individuals state that religion is important to them, this is not generally expressed through active religious participation in organized communities. While roughly 88% of the population belong to the Church of Norway, only 10% attend church services or other Christianity-related meetings more than once a month.

Some 5.9% of the population are members of other religious communities, while 6.2% do not belong to any religious community at all. The largest religious and life-stance communities outside the Church of Norway are the Humanist Movement, represented by the Norwegian Humanist Association (63 000), Islam (60 000), the Pentecostal Movement (45 000), the Roman Catholic Church (40 000 or more), the Evangelical-Lutheran free church (20 000), Methodists (13 000) and several lesser free churches.

Edited from Aschehoug and Gyldendal's Norwegian Encyclopedia

Hearing on the relationship between the Norwegian State and the Church of Norway:

There is now an ongoing hearing to determine whether the state church system should be continued, reformed or discontinued. The final date to give an opinion is within 1^st of December 2006.

Recommendation of the State-Church Committee