LWF Council member Dean Kristine Sandmæl from the Church of Norway. Photo: LWF/A. Hillert
Dean Kristine Sandmæl from the Church of Norway
(LWI) - The remote Lofoten islands, in Norway’s Arctic region, are described in the tourist brochures as ‘wild and wonderful’, with majestic mountains, deep fjords, windswept beaches and quaint fishing villages. It is in one of these little villages, with a population of less than 500 inhabitants, that you will find the Very Rev. Kristine Sandmæl, a rural dean responsible for 12 congregations across the archipelago of around 80 islands.
Alongside her full-time job, Sandmæl also serves as moderator of the Church of Norway’s Council for Ecumenical Relations, representing the church at many international and ecumenical gatherings. In addition, at the last Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Assembly in Kraków, Poland, she was elected to the LWF’s governing Council, sharing her expertise as a member of the Committee for Ecumenical Relations.
Her life today is a far cry from the one she originally envisaged, growing up in a small industrial town south of Oslo, where she dreamed of becoming an engineer. “I am a very logical person, I like science, so faith was a strange thing for me,” she says. But reluctant attendance at a confirmation class in her local congregation changed her life’s trajectory in unexpected ways.
Tell us something about these remote islands where you have made your home?
The Lofoten islands are in the Norwegian Arctic, but they have a mild climate because of the warm waters of the Gulf stream. For centuries the main source of income has been coastal fishing, since the Vikings developed ways of drying cod, or skrei as we call it, to create stockfish.
About a thousand years ago, Catholics in Europe needed fish for Fridays [traditionally abstaining from meat] so the people on these islands began selling their dried or salted cod all over the continent. This trade became our lifeline, the basis of our identity, and it continues to this day, so you can find our fish sold in Europe, Africa or Latin America.
Over the last 30 years, tourism has become another source of income for us. As a church, our work is different in winter and in summer, and it is very exciting as we arrange activities that connect to our roots as a local community but also can attract tourists as well, including services in different languages. The people in this region are quite different from the south where they are more reserved; here people are very open and welcoming, very relaxed and straight talking. I love it here very much.
You grew up in the south of Norway, didn’t you?
Yes, I come from a small industrial town called Moss, which is south of Oslo, about 1,500 kilometers away from where I live now in the village of Henningsvær. I first discovered the islands as a church youth worker in the year after high school. Then, when I finished seminary, it was hard to find work in the south, so I moved up there and worked as a parish pastor for 20 years, before applying for the position as rural dean almost a decade ago.
What does your regular work entail?
I am responsible for nine pastors and 12 congregations, as well as other lay people doing education or other theology-related work. We hold study groups once a month, but a lot of my work is also connected with administration, finding pastors when there are vacancies and ensuring that they have good working conditions.
Is there an issue of declining numbers of pastors, like in other European countries?
Yes, we have a generation of pastors who are retiring and are not being replaced, as not so many people are choosing to study in the seminaries. That is why the Church of Norway has made it possible to become a pastor through different routes. If you have a master's degree and are above a certain age, you can do a fast-track training for ministry which is less than the usual six and a half years. This is very popular and there are currently more people doing this, than studying for ordination in the seminaries.
How old were you when you first felt called to train for ministry in the church?
I come from what I would call a typical Norwegian family that goes to church for baptisms, weddings, funerals and at Christmas. As a rebellious 13-year-old, I decided I was an atheist and said I did not want to go to confirmation class, which was the normal thing to do. My dad asked me to do it for my grandmother, and I loved her, so I agreed to attend the classes. That year really changed my life, maybe it was the work of the Holy Spirit, but I felt welcomed and taken care of by the congregation in my hometown.
I become interested in theology through worship, with people explaining to me why we do what we do. I am a very logical person, I like science so faith was strange for me, but when I began to see that there was mystery in the world that couldn’t be explained so easily, that was what brought me to faith. I originally wanted to be an engineer, then a teacher, but I dropped out of teacher training college and started in the seminary in Oslo. I was fascinated by theology and so I continued training and was ordained a pastor in 1997.
How would you characterize the Church of Norway today?
We were the state church until 2017 and about 70% of inhabitants are still registered as members. We are characterized as quite a progressive Lutheran church, which allows weddings for same-sex couples. This is a big question for us, but we want to keep our church together and we believe it is about finding room for different opinions. In 2016 the Synod ruled that all couples have the right to marry but if a pastor declines to officiate at the wedding of same sex couples, then the dean is required to find another pastor. It is a balance and it has been working quite well, as we accept different opinions, as long as they are always shared in a respectful way.
Tell us about your role as moderator of the Council for ecumenical relations?
When I was growing up, we had a lot of refugees from Vietnam, Chile and elsewhere, plus migrant workers from Pakistan and the Philippines. In my primary school, we came from almost a dozen different nations, so I was used to diversity and interested in other cultures and religions. When I was a student and a member of the Council on Ecumenical and International Relations, the Porvoo agreement was being worked out to bring Lutherans and Anglicans into full communion. I found it very interesting and I learned a lot from that.
Now, we are a more diverse country, with a growing Catholic community, a lot of immigrant churches and a large Pentecostal movement. We are still the largest church, but we also have a saying that ‘if you are very big, you have to be very kind’. Our Council prepares documents for our church on ecumenical and international issues, and we represent the church at ecumenical assemblies or with organizations such as Norwegian Church Aid.
Finally, what does it mean for your church to be a part of the global communion of churches?
I think members of the Church of Norway have very little idea of what it means to be Lutheran. As we have been the state church for so long, we think of ourselves as Christian, so the question of Lutheran identity has only recently emerged. So, working on ecumenism also means bringing this question to our congregations.
As a pastor, I try to do this through discussions, through preaching. I recently took our pastors to Wittenberg for a study trip to open their eyes and equip them to talk about what it means to be part of a wider communion. It will take time to grass-root these ideas, but for example at baptisms, we now talk about the candidates as being baptized into the global fellowship, not just into our church. And at confirmation, I talk about how we have a home in any Lutheran church, anywhere around the world.
