The Secretary General of the World Council of Churches, Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, has been nominated to serve as the next Presiding Bishop of the Church of Norway, a member of the Lutheran World Federation.
Dr Fykse Tveit has served in his current post since 2010 and is due to stand down at the end of March 2020. His new appointment is scheduled to be confirmed by the Church of Norway’s National Church Council at its meeting in Trondheim on 30 and 31 January 2020.
As required by the regulations of the Church of Norway, Dr Fykse Tveit is the only candidate nominated for the Presiding Bishop role by the Church of Norway’s Bishops’ Conference.
“We are delighted and grateful that Dr Fykse Tveit has confirmed that he is accepting the nomination and is willing to make himself available to become a bishop in our church and for the Bishops’ Conference”, the current Presiding Bishop, Helga Haugland Byfuglien, said.
In a statement, the Church of Norway said that “Through his service, Olav Fykse Tveit has gained great confidence and made significant contributions to the church’s unity and interaction across continents and faiths. The Bishop’s Conference is convinced that Olav Fykse Tveit will become a very good leader in the college of bishops and the Church of Norway in a new era.”
After his ordination, Dr Fykse Tveit served as an army chaplain in Sessvollmoen before moving to serve the parish of Haram in Diocese of Møre. Between 1991 and 1996 he served as Consultant and then Senior Consultant for Theological Matters at the Church’s Council of Ecumenical Affairs; before an appointment as Secretary of the Doctrinal Commission from 1999. He moved on to become Secretary to the Church-State Commission of the National Church Council; and then Secretary General of the Church’s Council of Ecumenical Affairs.
Dr Fykse Tveit said: “I am thankful, humbled and honoured by the confidence expressed in me by the Bishops’ Conference, being aware of the many dimensions and responsibilities of such a task.
“I have made myself available for this process and have accepted the nomination as a call to continue to serve the church. I now wait for the final outcome of this process.”
The World Council of Churches is the world’s largest ecumenical organisation. It brings together 350 denominations with more than 500 million Christians in 110 countries. The Anglican Consultative Council is a member of the WCC, as are 29 of the Anglican Communion’s 40 provinces and three of the five extra provincial areas.
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