Knut Heidelberg

History is exciting and at the moment I am doing research on the early Unitarian movement here in Norway. The first movement begun in our capital, Oslo (then named Christiania or Kristiania), about 1893 for more or less to vanish into nowhere in 1937. A second Unitarian movement started at the end of the 1980ies and is still alive.

One of the new discoveries is that in 1909 the Norwegian Unitarian pastor Herman Haugerud travelled to the USA and England in order to collect money for a church building the Norwegian Unitarians were planning to erect. Looking at Haugerud’s old correspondence suddenly a letter from the Hungarian bishop Joseph Ferencz turns up. Here he writes that the Unitarian churches in Hungary have collected 1,000 Crowns for the Norwegian Unitarians. If you are interested to read the letter, click here: unitarian.christian.net/foto/hungarynorway.pdf

It seems Unitarianism was first introduced to individual Norwegians around 1880 when many emigrated to the USA. The first Norwegians to become Unitarians outside the USA were the composer Edvard Grieg and his wife who learned about Unitarianism in Birmingham in England in 1888. But in the USA several Norwegians received Unitarian education and later founded Unitarian congregations. In 1893 two Norwegians started independently of each other to introduce Unitarianism in Christiania (to day Oslo) in Norway. And 1895 there was a Unitarian church in Oslo under the leadership of writer and Unitarian pastor Kristofer Janson.

In 1904 Unitarian pastor Herman Haugerud returned from the USA and took over the leadership of the Unitarian church in Oslo. At this time the Census tells that there were about 100 Unitarians in Norway and articles in newspapers at that time say that about 150-200 people would attend Unitarian Services on a regular basis. From documents found in archives we know that the Unitarian church was planning to erect a church building of their own. Documents tell that the church’s board sent pr. Haugerud on a trip to England and the USA in order to collect money for the erection of the church. Unfortunately this church building was never erected.

Among the documents there is also one handwritten letter signed by «Joseph Ference, bishop of the Hungarian Unitarian Churches», dated «Kolozsvar 29th Sept. 1909». In this letter the bishop refers to a letter he has received from pr. Haugerud and writes, «I read with great pleasure your letter, in which you told me that you would readily accept the 1000 crowns, offered from the part of the Hungarian Unitarian Churches for the expences of erecting a new Unitarian chapel in Christiania.» The bishop then tells that the money has been transferred via a bank at Kolozsvar.

This is a remarkable letter and the only one documenting the very first close connection between Unitarians in Transylvania and Norway. To day we do not know anything of the letter which the bishop first received from pr. Haugerud and to which he answers.

Unfortunately the history of Europe would later make contact between the churches impossible. And for pr. Haugerud he died in 1937 and his Unitarian church seems to have ceased to exist soon after. His youngest daughter and last person to be baptised as Unitarian in Norway and by a Norwegian Unitarian pastor is still alive and living in Oslo. So in some way she still represents the living historical connection between Unitarians in our two countries.

In 2004 Norwegian and Hungarian Unitarians celebrated Communion together in Bela Bartok Unitarian Church in Budapest. Then in 2005 a young Norwegian boy was baptised in Bela Bartok Unitarian Church and in January 2007 an blessing Service took place connecting Hungarian Unitarian pastors and The Norwegian Unitarian Church. Next year, 2008, a Norwegian youth will probably receive Unitarian Confirmation in Budapest.

To see the blessing Service January 2007 in Bela Bartok Unitarian Church click
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=heidelberg+unitarian

I’ve written a summary of my thesis about the history of the first movement of Norwegian Unitarianism 1893-1937. The article is uploaded as a pdf-file here:

http://morgenstierne.org/2007mmvvii/unitarisme/18931937.pdf