March 30, 2005

OSLO, Norway/GENEVA – 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.

Lutheran World Information