October 28, 2010

GENEVA – The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has congratulated the first woman to be elected chairperson of Church of Norway Bishops' Conference, Bishop Helga Haugland Byfuglien, noting her election is cause for celebration.

"The election is first of all, of course, a recognition of your own gifts and vision, and for that we join your church in giving thanks," said Acting LWF General Secretary Rev. Martin Junge in a letter to Byfuglien, who was elected to head the bishops' conference on 21 October.

"We celebrate this new evidence that, within the span of a single lifetime ordained women's leadership is becoming visible at the most senior levels of our churches," Junge added.

He said that he looks forward to working with Byfuglien, who was elected LWF vice president for the Nordic region at the Eleventh Assembly in July.

Byfuglien has been bishop of Borg, southeast of the capital Oslo, since 2005, and one of four Church of Norway women bishops. She succeeds Bishop Olav Skjevesland of Agder, who has held the post since 2006.

Her term as chairperson of the Bishops' Conference will end in mid-2011 as the government will establish an additional office of bishop which will give the state church its first permanent function of presiding bishop based in the country's ancient ecclesiastical capital of Nidaros or Trondheim as it is known now.

She says the church's main challenge is to pass on the "message of love, forgiveness and hope in such a way that people find our words and deeds relevant," reports the Church of Norway Information Service.

Byfuglien has held positions in the dioceses of Nidaros and Borg. She is chairperson of a national project to reform religious education in the church. Since 2001, she has been Secretary General of the Norwegian Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations.

The Church of Norway has nearly 3.9 million members, representing more than 80 percent of the country's population. It has 11 dioceses organized in over 1,280 congregations. It joined the LWF in 1947.

Lutheran World Federation