Stating that the Christian church carries a heavy responsibility for the growth of anti-Semitism over the centuries, the general synod of the Church of Norway on November 14 declared its support for the churches in the Middle East, and their efforts for peace, religious dialogue and inter-religious cooperation.
The statement said the religious freedom of Christians is being violated in Iraq, Iran, and Egypt, while people are suffering from Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian areas.
The general synod’s statement came after Palestinian Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan had addressed the synod’s session at Oeyer in the diocese of Hamar. Bishop Younan said hope has been created by a new council of religious institutions in the Holy Land, founded after year-long efforts by, among others, the Rev. Trond Bakkevig of the Church of Norway, and with the support of the Norwegian church and government authorities.
The synod said also that theology should not be misused in the Holy Land. “Old Testament promises speaking of Jews and the land, cannot be used to defend the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes,” it stated.
The general synod challenged Church of Norway parishes to support, defend and visit Christians and churches in the Holy Land. The synod requested central Church of Norway offices to do the same, directly and through ecumenical and other international organizations.
The Church of Norway said it has had direct cooperation with Bishop Younan’s church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, since the early 1980s after Younan’s predecessor, Bishop Daoud Haddad, had voiced his disappointment that the Church of Norway had no direct links to its Lutheran sister church in the Holy Land.
Bishop Younan in the same week addressed the church assembly of the more than 7 million member Church of Sweden, the world’s largest national Lutheran church. There, he cited a lack of charismatic leadership in the world and called on the Church to address the greed that contributed to the current global economic crisis.
Humanity must have “economics with ethics and politics with morals”, he said. “It’s not how much you can make but how much you are accountable in what you invest,” said Younan.
