– What is the content of a school service? – A school service is not like an ordinary high mass. When we have to celebrate a school service, for example at Christmas, it is important to bring out what is traditional, but it should not be preachy. The Christmas Gospel will get plenty of space. Perhaps there are some students who want to perform with songs, and there can be many kinds of things, and that we sing some of the core hymns that belong at Christmas. Then there are questions about this with prayer or participation. And the priest, or the catechist who conducts the school service, will not say: “Let’s all pray”, but will perhaps say: “Now I will say a prayer. And anyone who wants to can listen, and anyone who wants to can join in.” You have to have respect for the students who participate, and that the small church service is set up so that all children can be there, if the parents want it. But what is important here is that the design should take place in dialogue with the school. – But to be absolutely clear about it, is it preaching in a school service? – There should be no preaching in a school service. – What has happened? On your website, you write that a school church service is by definition an exercise of faith and preaching. – Yes, does it? (…) (Finnset requests that the question be asked again) -———- out on your own website So what happened? - A clearer awareness of the balance between the participants of a church service and how we can balance the fine line between communication and what we would call preaching. I would like to think that a school service is a dissemination of the traditional substance and content of Christmas. And that it is done in such a way that we can be together in it. – But what is the difference between dissemination and preaching? – Preaching is a term where I think we often hear that we are stepping over someone’s lines, when we talk about a school worship context. While mediation gives the individual a larger space. That’s how I want to use it. – But can a church service be non-preaching? - Yes. A church service will be a preaching or a conveyance of a story and a message, both in the room we are in, in the songs, and in what is read or participated in. And at the same time, this is part of our society’s common fabric of tradition, which it is actually quite important that children gain knowledge about. We need to hold on to this knowledge, and for new generations to also take part in the Christmas traditions that are included. And that this is also a wish from many parents. But it is clear, the church is in itself a preaching space. But I feel that the word ‘preaching’ in this context is a word, as we read it, that can step over someone’s notions of inappropriate influence. Just as we also experience that the word ‘mission’ has become missionary. And has become a bit of a “foot in the door” tactic. So I think that this should be done by offering pupils to participate in school services. -$ What specific changes have you made to the school church services so that it is now no longer by definition practicing faith and preaching? – The services are, after all, an exercise of faith and will be a communication. I also see that the Minister of Education, in his answer in question time quite recently, says that the provision of school services is not covered by the ban on preaching in education. So here is a nice balancing act. So you may have to talk to a few more bishops who are even more sophisticated than I am in the use of terms. But I understand that preaching is a word that is not so easy to relate to for many. In the way that we may also experience preaching as a word that may not ensure respect for each other’s point of view. At the same time, it is clear that conveying a religious message will be inseparable from a church visit. So it’s a balancing act that we have to try to respectfully enter into together, and I think it’s possible. – What do you think is the point for the Church of Norway in having school services? – The Christmas service in general has a special place in people’s lives. In the way that many people attend Christmas services, and that the Christmas story is central to our culture. In that way, I also think that it is important to be able to offer this traditional fabric. Communicate in the setting in which many children also participate in different ways. Either as a school service, or as in other gatherings. After all, there are a number of matters surrounding the school’s Christmas service that are very clearly regulated, and which no one questions. There is advice that it should not be the last day. That they can experience division instead of unity. Freedom of choice, information and so on are very well established. But in many local communities we also experience fruitful collaboration in other contexts than just at Christmas between school and church. And then we see that the school service nevertheless has a special place, and we would like to offer it. – What exactly is a church service when you have taken out the practice of faith and preaching? – Yes, it is still a simpler church service that all children can participate in. And they call it different things. Some call it a Christmas celebration or a joint gathering in the church. Collections that are in the church take on a slightly different feel depending on who is involved in designing them. But I think that the key content here is hymn singing, spreading the Christmas gospel. It is our father that can be invited to participate, right. – When will you change the school services from being religious practitioners and preachers to no longer being so? – I can’t answer that exactly on my feet. But there is an increasing awareness that has happened. And one of the things that has happened first is this judgment from Strasbourg which is a few years back, where it became so clear about freedom of choice and information. - The reason why I ask again is that you yourself say publicly on your websites that the school service is an exercise of faith and preaching. And then you say no, it isn’t. – Yes, I would certainly like to modify it. You hear when we talk together that the service is in its nature a communication of faith, but I would like to use that word, because you hear that I understand that it says something else on the websites. And I am keen to manage to keep that dialog door open as well as possible. Because I hear and understand that the word preaching has a value that makes some people recoil. But a church service will always be a communication of the Christian message. Because it is a religious service, just as you would say that participating and being with or attending a prayer in the mosque will be an encounter with Muslim faith. Of course, a service in a church building will always be an encounter with Christian faith communication. I think we have to put up with each other. In the open-minded society, it is precisely the meaning that we should meet each other, and meet each other’s expressions of faith. – What do you do in the Church of Norway to ensure that the school service is as you describe, and not preachy? – It is done several times. Notices are now sent out that the school service can be held, and then attention is drawn to what the guidelines are. But then you also hear that we are in such a nice country of definitions here, where there are nuances in the use of language that perhaps we should also look at, that some perceive the word preach a little differently than I would like to use it.
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Are school services legal? No, says the Human-Ethical Association. Yes, says the Minister of Knowledge – news Trøndelag – Local news, TV and radio
