A HEROIC CHURCH
By G. H. GRETTON
N April 12th the Norwegian clergy, after openly and explicitly i-epudiating the puppet Government set up by the Germans, up and conducted iheir services unmolested in their churches. the first time since the rise of the vast organised might of owl Socialism in Germany passive resistance has prevailed t it. It is true, the struggle in Norway is not vet over. The
s are undoubtedly planning some alternative method of attack. the fact remains that the Norwegian Church, with the support the Norwegian people, refused to compromise, and asserted itself. , we may be sure, will it give way, whatever guile or violence Nazis use.
is worth while to look into the background of this event. ugh, in the first shock of invasion and the fall of France, a n of the Norwegian Church which was strongly pacifist tried lad some sort of working compromise with the Nazis, the issue ly became clear and a common front was formed. Just over it ago, in February, 1941, the first important stand was made, the bishops in a concerted pastoral letter condemned the jour of the Quisling Government in three instances. Shortly ards the-great bulk of the clergy refused to take part in religious asts which the Nazis .sought to use as a means of enlisting implicit support of the Church. There followed a further protest s' a Nazi version of the Catechism which introduced Quisling's into the Fourth Commandment (the Third Commandment the Authorised Version). In the last three months the tension increased to a crisis. The Quisling Government devised a plan the lines of that which split the German Protestant Church in A Quisling clergyman, Dahle by name, was to be forced on Church as its "leader," to break it down from inside. Since events have moved rapidly.
On February 1st the Quisling Government cancelled a service in eim Cathedral by the Dean, Dr. Fjellbu, in favour of one Dahle, which was to celebrate the Quisling Act of State. That oon D. Fjellbu held his postponed service and preached on text, "Lo, we have left all and have followed Thee." In it he no room for doubt about his attitude to the Quisling interference religious matters. "If you build on lies, and injustice, force and " he said, "you will reap unhappiness for yourself and others." he urged his congregation not to let any consideration for the uences deter them from resistance. The Quisling police back most of the large crowd which flocked to the service shut the doors of the Cathedral. During the service the crowd ed outside and demonstrated by singing Lutheran hymns. On February 14th, when a decree had been issued ordering the Jlsory enrolment of all children in the Quisling equivalent of Hitler Youth, the Norwegian bishops sent a joint letter of protest t the interference with home influence and Christian education would result. The teachers supported them by resigning in numbers from the Quisling Teachers' Association—a step which red their dismissal. The schools are still closed and many Ts were sent to concentration camps or to forced labour.
February 24th all seven Norwegian bishops resigned from their under the State, retaining their spiritual standing and functions. leader, Bishop Berggrav, was virtually arrested and forced to t himself twice a day at the police station, but as he was s accompanied by an enthusiastic crowd of followers, who made l'hita into anti-Quisling demonstrations, this order was rescinded. Easter Sunday, the great bulk of the clergy read a manifesto the Pulpits which amounted to a severance of their connexion the government. • They said in it that they refused to accept on from outside the Church about how to preach the Word 631:1; that they could not tolerate any temporal authority de
priving a duly ordained servant of the Church of his post or vocation or right to wear clerical dress ; that the Church must support any one who is persecuted for the sake of his conscience ; that it cannot permit any authority to organise the moral education of the children and of the people on lines independent of the Christian view of life ; and that they would co-operate only with an authority which orders and defends the Church in accordance with God's Word. The following Sunday they all appeared in their pulpits and preached as usual. The Quisling Government was preparing to react with violence, when the Nazi authorities stepped in and ordered it to desist. On April 27th the Swedish Press reported that the Norwegian clergy are not only continuing their pastoral activities, but are also teaching the children, since the schools are closed, in their own houses and in Church halls supported by voluntary local subscriptions.
In connexion with this revolt of the Church, certain facts should be borne in mind. The Norwegian Church is in an unusual degree a national church. The great majority of the Norwegian people belong to it. The official figure of 96.75 per cent, of the population (1930 census) need not be taken too literally. According to Norwegian law, anyone born of parents who are members of the State Church is deemed to be also a member of it unless and until he formally announces his withdrawal. This inevitably means that numbers of people, who have no really positive reason for withdrawing, are in the Church; but not always of it. In Norway, as in every country, there are agnostic tendencies. Some members of dissenting bodies, too, retain their official membership of the State Church for practical reasons. But, even taking this into account, it is still true that the State Church has the support of the great majority of Norwegians. It is interwoven in the texture of the national life as scarcely any other Protestant church can be today. It is particularly interested in education. The State elementary schools are strongly under Lutheran influence, and have been called the "firm foundation of the Church."
Another important factor, which the Nazis will certainly have taken into account in their decision to call off their Quisling pack, is the strength of the lay movement in Norway. This goes back to the beginning of the last century, to the inspiration of Hans Nielsen Hauge, The great reformer and lay preacher, whose place in Norwegian life is in some ways similar to that of John Wesley in England. The lay movements have caused considerable disturbance in Norwegian religious life, but have also been a powerful revitalising factor. Among other things, they have given Norwegian protestantism a strong turn towards social welfare, in which the Church as a whole today plays a predominant part. Moreover, the lay movement helps to solve a problem implicit in Norway's geographical situation. Norway is a vast, sparsely populated country with important classes—such as the farmers and the fishermen— living in isolated districts. In 1934 the number of clergymen was about z to 4,000 of population. Hence, lay services in the so-called " prayer-houses " or in private houses are an important feature of Norwegian religious life. When the Nazis seek to suppress the Church in Norway, they need to exerCise compulsion on the great bulk of the population. Literally, wherever two or three are gathered together, there is the Church. Action on the Polish model is the last thing the Germans want to resort to in Norway, which can maintain contact with the world and which has been held up to Germans as a fraternal " nordic " country.
The case of Norway is a clear example of the depths of power upon which a people can draw when it has a real religious life and a Church which is vital to the national consciousness. The Norwegian Church penetrates and is penetrated by all aspects of the national life : educational, social and political, as well as religious. When the crisis came, it had the right to speak for the nation, and it can fight Nazi ideology in every sphere. In Germany, on the other hand, the Protestant Church, withdrawn into a sterile " idealism " which divides religion and the other spheres of life into water-tight compartments, had lost the common touch. Driven out of every other stronghold, it found, when it wanted to defend its idealistic abstraction of religion, that it had no bases from which to opPrate. Norway is surely an object-lesson to all serious men and • women, both inside and outside the churches.
Previous page
