Høring - Endringer i lov om trudomssamfunn og ymist anna og endringer i lov om tilskot til livssynssamfunn

Fra: Trevor Park [mailto:trepar@online.no]
Sendt: 10. april 2003 11:45
Til: postmottak@kkd.dep.no
Emne: Høringsbrev ang: trudommsamfunn og tilskott

Svaret vårt fra Den anglikanske kirken til høringsbrevet er blitt sendt som vanlig brev til saksbehandleren Gro Paudal. Det vedlegges her også elektronisk.

Med vennlig hilsen
Trevor Park

The Anglican Chaplaincy inNorway
Diocese inEurope- Church of England

The Revd Dr Trevor Park The British Embassy
Tel: (+47) 22 69 22 14 Thomas Heftyes gt 8
Fax: (+47) 22 69 21 63 0244 Oslo
E-mail: trepar@online.no Norway

Det Kongelige kultur- og kirkedepartement
Deres ref: 2002/1624 AØ GP Saksnr: 03/9799-1
Saksbehandler: Gro Paudal
09.04.2003

Høringsbrev - Endringer i lov om trudomssamfunn mm

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed changes in the law relating to registered religious bodies and the payment of subsidies to them.

1. We recognize and share your concern that there should be an accurate list of members for every registered religious body with no duplication of membership. We believe it is essential that all registered bodies, the majority body of Dnk and the minority bodies are treated equally - whatever is required of the latter should also be required of the former.

2. We would prefer to retain the present practice whereby we maintain and check annually the name, address and date of birth of all our members which in the case of the Anglican Chaplaincy means members in about a hundred different kommuner in Norway. We do not have the personnummer of our members and to obtain them, as your letter acknowledges, from everyone would be very difficult. Experience from research projects has shown that, human nature being what it is, not everyone replies to written requests for information even when a stamped self-addressed envelope is provided! Sending a form to all our members asking for their personnummer would probably result in no more than a 70% response. How many members of Dnk would respond if they were sent such a request? Your letter holds out the possibility that the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs might help in gathering this information - that would be essential, in our view, if the law is changed.

3. We wish to challenge your assumption that any new born child should automatically be regarded as a member of Dnk if one parent is a member. That is discriminatory. Many of our expatriate members are married to Norwegians who are members of Dnk but they choose to have their child baptised in the Anglican Church. It is baptism which determines a child’s membership. And the children we baptise are included on our membership list with the parents’ consent.

4. We also wish to take this opportunity to raise a related issue. It is assumed that 86+% of the population are members of Dnk presumably on the basis of baptismal register statistics though in reality a far smaller percentage are actively involved in their local church. In England over half the population are baptized members of the State Church, the Church of England, but we do not have membership lists in the way it is required in Norway. This phenomenon is unknown to us as there are no State or kommune subsidies for religious bodies in the UK. Consequently, when expatriates from the UK (and Anglicans from elsewhere) come to live and work in Norway they do not automatically register with us as members. If there were some way of their identifying themselves as members of the C of E or of other Anglican Churches (e.g. Church in Wales, Episcopal Church of Scotland etc) when they register with Folkeregister and that information was made available to us, our membership numbers would rise dramatically. We are disadvantaged, as against Dnk, in this respect as are other foreign church bodies in Norway. It could help greatly if you addressed this issue also. We currently have about 1500 signed up members - in terms of church allegiance among expatriates in Norway, that number should probably be more like 10,000 if only they knew the Norwegian system and filled in the appropriate form.

5. We understand the Ministry’s desire to have a simpler centralized system for registering religious allegiance but question whether what is being proposed will prove to be more just. It could adversely affect the religious minorities in Norway. We assume, no one in the Ministry or Storting wants that!

With all good wishes for your further deliberations.

Yours sincerely

The Revd Dr Trevor Park
on behalf of the Anglican Chaplaincy in Norway

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Revd Dr Trevor Park
Harald Haarfagres gt 2/L512
0363 Oslo
Norway
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