Knut Heidelberg

To day, Friday June 26 in Oslo at Ridehuset (Akershus fortress) David of
Germany and Steinar of Norway received Unitarian same-gender wedding. This is the first Unitarian same-gender wedding to take place in Scandinavia, and The Bét Dávid Unitarian Association wishes for them many happy years to come. Congratulations!

Yesterday I received the good news that The Unitarian Church in Sweden now has a new leader: Owe Örneståhl, a former ordained deacon of the Swedish Old Catholic church “Allmänna Apostoliska Kyrkan” . He succeeds Unitarian bishop Ragnar Emilsen who died Febrary 5 2008.

The Unitarian Church in Sweden has been inactive since the death of bishop Ragnar, and Owe will now focus on establishing Unitarian study groups various places in Sweden and hopes they later will evolve to become Unitarian house congregations.

I am happy to tell that pastor Maurisa Brown-Latham now has agreed to be The Norwegian Unitarian Church’s new contact person in the USA. Maurisa is the founder of Unitarian Ministries and a seminary student of The New Seminary to be ordained June 14 2009.

As mentioned in previous posting there is now a new Unitarian organization in Norway named Unitarian Umbrella Organization of Norway (UUO). UUO will function as contact between Norwegian Unitarian groups and International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU). You can wisit the new UUO web-site here.

As all Christians also Unitarians celebrate all ordinary holy days of the church year. Because Unitarians do not share the faith that Jesus resurrected in person, it may seem strange that the Ascension Day is among the celebrated. Unitarians understand the ascension of Jesus to heaven in a symbolical way. When Jesus disappears in the cloud and becomes invisible to the disciples gathered this is the metaphor saying the disciples now become fully aware of the teaching of Jesus and entered a deeper understanding of it. This process is pictured in the way that Jesus disappears and the disciples now carry on his office of teaching. On Ascension Day the disciples moved on from being students of Jesus to become teachers. See Mark. 16:19-20.

To my knowledge the only Norwegian Unitarian book of sermons ever published is «Lys og Frihed» («Light and Freedom») by the Unitarian pastor and writer Kristofer Janson (1841-1917). In 1892 - a couple of years before he left the USA to return to Norway - Janson published this collection of his Unitarian sermons and arranged them in such a manner that we find one sermon for each Sunday in the church year. For long this book of sermons has been almost impossible to get but now, thanks to Biblio Bazaar Reproduction Series, we may purchase a facsimile of Janson’s Unitarian book of sermons via Amazon (http://amazon.com). Being a facsimile the text is old 1892-Norwegian and printed with the German types («Gothic letters») that was common for this period. For those of you reading Norwegian and don’t find 1892-Norwegian German types that difficult to decipher, this book is much recommended both for inspiration to our religious life and to deeper knowledge of the Christian Unitarianism that Janson “imported” from USA and planted in Norway.

To day May 4 is the birthday of Kristofer Janson, b. 1841, died November 17 1917 in Denmark. Janson is to day remembered as a Norwegian writer and few associate his name with Unitarianism. But in 1895 it was he that symbolized the new Unitarian movement when he created the first Norwegian Unitarian church, The Church of Brotherhood (Unitarian Society). He was probably the first Norwegian ever to received Unitarian ordination. The ceremony took place in 1881 in Third Unitarian Church in Chicago, and then he was asked by The American Unitarian Association and Western Conference to serve as minister among Scandinavian settlers in Minnesota. This he did until about 1893 when he returned to Norway.

Janson was not the first to introduce Unitarianism to Norway. Hans Tambs Lyche (1859-1898) started doing this one year before Janon’s return. But Janson was the first to establish a Unitarian church in Norway. It is this historical church that to day have been continued via The Bét Dávid Unitarian Association (The Norwegian Unitarian Church). Janson’s church died out in 1937 but today’s Norwegian Unitarian Church has restored it. This happened first in 1995 and finally 2005 when the church registered at the Governor’s Office. Their by-laws is based on the same laws that once guided Janson’s church. In fact Kristofer Janson is the historical founder of Unitarforbundet Bét Dávid (The Norweigan Unitarian Church) too which first was established 1895 and then again 2005.

The UUO board. Front from left: Anette M. Bilari von Munthe af Morgenstierne and Susan Gisler. Standing, from left: Galen Gisler and Knut Heidelberg.

May 2 representatives for The Unitarian Universalists in Norway and the Unitarian Association met for a meeting to found a the new Unitarian Umbrella Organization in Norway (UUO). In order to meet the requirements for membership of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU) saying each country should only have one Unitarian group represented as member, the existing Unitarian organizations in Norway agreed to found a umbrella organization to represent them all.UUO will function as contact between Norwegian Unitarian organizations and ICUU.

Elected UUO leader is Anette M. Bilari von Munthe af Morgenstierne. Other members of the board is Susan and Galen Gisler and Knut Heidelberg. A web page is under construction.

It has never been easier to become member of The Bét Dávid Unitarian Association (The Norwegian Unitarian Church). Simply visit http://english.unitarforbundet.org and fill out and send in the form at the end of the page.