Abstract
Regrettably, Christians in the UK tend to have a somewhat vague notion of the Protestant churches of Northern Europe. The Nordic churches are understood to be Lutheran state or folk churches. Sometimes they are thought to be conservative towards change, especially in Norway and Denmark. This book presents strong arguments for the incorrectness of such views, or at least argues that such views are now very much out of date. It presents the reader with fascinating stories of intentional change, including not only sensitive questions about relations between church and state, but also about change management at the very local level. For those involved in ecclesiastical change management in the Church of England, there are useful lessons to be learned from our Nordic and Baltic colleagues in the ‘Porvoo’ family of churches, with which we have a special relationship of communion. The editors and contributors offer positive experience of intentional change.
The chapter by Isolde Karle deals with the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) and looks at reform in Germany. She questions current reform policy in the EKD on the basis of its lack of theology, reliance on dubious demographical and socio-religious analysis, cost–benefit calculation and relentless centralization – a debate that can be recognized within the churches of the UK.
Ulla Schmidt touches on change in the Church of Norway with regard to Christian education and the reform of deaneries in terms of flexibility and more local leadership. She then discusses public reforms and how the Church has adapted and developed its own internal changes. Bim Riddersporre and Johanna Gustafsson Lundberg report on the increase in managerial tasks at the local level in the Church of Sweden and explore different metaphors of leadership, while Kjetil Fretheim offers a case study from a parish in Oslo. Harald Askeland studies how the role of the local dean has been strengthened in Norway, something that certainly has relevance for the Church of England. Per Hansson compares the disciplinary procedures of the Church of Sweden with those of the Church of England and finds that there are many parallels. Karen Leth-Nissen looks at the question of members consciously leaving the Church of Denmark and their reasoning. Hege Steinsland explores shared or dual leadership models and the shift from ‘Who is in charge?’ to ‘How are we in charge?’ Maria Åkerström explores entrepreneurship in the Church of Sweden.
All of the above are directly relevant to the debate about reform in the Church of England, and many arguments will be familiar. However, the most interesting article for those who are not professional students of religious sociology will be the one by Andreas Aarflot, previously Bishop of Oslo and a veteran of both church reform and ecumenism within the Church of England as a member of the Porvoo Commission with the Nordic and Baltic churches. He begins with the change in Norway from a state church to a self-governed church, analysing the historical meaning of a state church through a scholarly study of Richard Hooker and his identification of church and state as two interdependent sectors within the one commonwealth. In Norway and Denmark, what emerged was absolute monarchy in which the ecclesial interdependence of Hooker found no practical place – rather as the Tudor monarchy tended to, in practice if not in theory. Aarflot notes that absolutism was abandoned during the Enlightenment for the sovereignty of the people, but Norway still had royal supremacy, which in effect became the political government of the day. Aarflot then outlines the ecclesiological basis for modern reforms of the Church of Norway as ‘a confessing, missionary, diaconal, open folk church’ (p. 29). It will be obvious that there are many resonances with the modern Church of England, which is episcopal and synodal and yet still retains elements of royal supremacy. Anyone concerned with church–state relations in England would do well to read this chapter.