The state/church reform

for Congregations in Mission (SMM) (see Making Friends! A Handbook on Partnership Relations between Congregations, 2009, and SMM’s web site www.menighetogmisjon.no).

Together with NCA’s Lenten appeal, missionary agreements will be the best way for local congregations to participate in efforts for indigenous peoples.

All the congregations in Inner Finnmark rural deanery have entered into missionary agreements in a joint project related to the Canjar Indians in Ecuador (Normisjon). The project supports the only primary / secondary school in Ecuador that teaches the Indians’ own language, culture and history. The project was chosen because it reminds the Sami of the repression of their own language and culture in the educational system and in the majority society. The missionary agreement with its indigenous peoples profile appeals to local communities and has led to initiatives such as exchanges between congregations in Inner Finnmark rural deanery and Indians involved with the school in Ecuador.

Within the framework of the Church of Norway’s partnership relations scheme in the parishes (missionary project / sister congregation) it is also possible for dioceses to establish

partnership relations. The three most northerly dioceses could for example discuss whether coordinating local and regional indigenous peoples projects related to a specific region could make these more effective.

 SMM and missionary consultants in North Hålogaland, South Hålogaland and Nidaros dioceses should cooperate with the Sami Church Council to increase the number of missionary agreements related to indigenous peoples in the Church of Norway generally and in Sami areas in particular.

5.16.1. The General Synod’s guidelines for the future church law and church order KM resolution 8/07 Grunnlovsforankring, kirkelov og kirkeordning for Den norske kirke (Constitutional basis, church law and church order for the Church of Norway) provides premises and overriding principles for a future church act and church order. The resolution contains a clear commitment to support Sami church life also after the relationship between state and church has been changed.

The paragraph on church law and church order states that “the church has a special responsibility to support Sami church life as a necessary and equal part of the Church of Norway. This has its origin in the Sami’s strong historical relation to the Church of Norway and in the Sami’s status as an indigenous people of Norway.”

Concerning the relationship between state regulations and internal regulations, it maintains that “the Church of Norway’s special responsibility for Sami church life is seen in the light of the Constitution § 110a” and that “the Church of Norway shall still be bound by the language regulations in the Sami Act and be party to the state financial arrangements entailed in these directives”.

The resolution also states that “the indigenous peoples’ dimension shall be respected both in the law and in the church order”.

 The guidelines for supporting Sami church life (KM 8/07) should be followed in the drafting of a new church act and a new church order. The state’s and the Church of Norway’s future obligations to Sami church life need to be clarified in the light of the Constitution § 110a, the Sami Act and the international rights of indigenous peoples.

5.16.2. The responsibility of the state for pursuing an actively supportive policy for Sami religion and life stances

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples article 12 establishes the right of indigenous peoples to practise and propagate their religious traditions, customs and ceremonies: “Indigenous peoples have the right to manifest, practice, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs and ceremonies […].” It is reasonable to assume that the Sami’s Christian traditions are also covered by this legal protection.

Christianity has for a long time been the religion of the Sami, and the vast majority of Sami in Norway belong to the Church of Norway. For many generations, Sami participation in the church’s festivals, rituals and religious life has been bound up with other Sami traditions and cultural practises. Against this background, distinct Sami Christian traditions, spiritualities and interpretations have emerged. If Sami church life is not preserved in the Church of Norway, there is a danger that important traditions and cultural elements – both specifically religious and otherwise – in the Sami people will disintegrate.

The responsibility for creating space and development opportunities for Sami Christian traditions cannot be placed on the church alone, but must be seen in the light of the state’s overriding responsibility (the Constitution 110a), where an actively supportive Sami policy and an actively supportive religious and life stance policy must be seen together. This

indicates the need for an actively supportive Sami religious and life stance policy on the part of the authorities.

The Strategic Plan for Sami Church Life assumes that the state/church settlement will not involve basic changes in the obligations of the state or the Church of Norway to Sami church life. Even though the state’s confessional basis ceases and the Church of Norway is given increased independence, the Church of Norway will still be Norway’s folkekirke, national church, and the responsibility of the state to pursue an actively supportive religious and life stance policy will be made explicit. The Church of Norway will still be a church with a special foundation in the Norwegian Constitution. The state’s fundamental responsibility for supporting Sami church life will be maintained in the balance between an actively supportive Sami policy and an actively supportive religious policy, also after the change in relationship between state and church.

5.16.3. The Sami Act language regulations

It is necessary to clarify whether the changed relationship between state and church has consequences for the Church of Norway’s obligations under the Sami Act. In addition to the aim of upholding the current obligations, the act’s language regulations should be examined with regard to the use of Sami languages in the church’s public activities (worship and church ceremonies).

It is apparent that the lawmakers did not have sufficient regard to the special character of the church’s ministry when the Sami Act language regulations were formulated. The legislative history of the act specifies that the special provision for the right to individual church ministry in Sami languages (§ 3-6) restricts this right to isolated individual acts detached from the congregation’s public activities. However, the church’s acts of ministry are unlike services rendered to individuals in most public institutions in that they in their very nature are

activities rooted in the common life of the congregation. When the right to be ministered to in baptism and holy communion in accordance with the Sami Act stipulates that this ministry must take place in an individual setting, it violates the essential character of these rites as expressions of the congregation’s common life.

There is good reason to ask whether the wording of the Sami Act language regulations is inadequate here, in that the legislative history indicates that Sami speakers do not have the same right as others to take part in the church’s public activities in their own language. The Sami Church Council has therefore requested that the Sami Act language regulations should be improved at this point, in the light of the Norwegian state’s obligations to the Sami as an indigenous people in accordance with the Constitution § 110a and with human rights provisions (SKR 26/09).

 The implications of the Sami Act language regulations should be considered with regard to the use of Sami in the church’s public activities (worship and church

ceremonies) and to the continuation of the obligations under the regulations when the relationship between state and church is changed

82 Strategic plan for Sami church life