Over 12,000 people left the Church last year

Church.Photo: Sara Johannessen / SCANPIX

Every month last year, on average, more than 1,000 people resigned from the Norwegian Church, but for the Church the tendency is positive.

The number of registrations, a total of 12,097, was the lowest in four years, while 2,252 entries were the third highest in the last six years, according to Dagen newspaper. In 2014, 11,003 members resigned from the
Norwegian Church, while the number of emails hit a peak two years ago, with 41,024, show the figures the newspaper has obtained from the Church Council.

2018 is the year when the number of Church members has fallen the least since 2013, when 5,464 subscribed and 1,063 people joined.

Bishop Helga Haugland Byfuglien finds it gratifying that the number of statements goes down, but says she also respects that people for various reasons want to step out of religious communities. It is only in recent
years that there have been relatively large fluctuations in the number of entries.

‘’In recent years, there has been considerably greater impact. It has had two main reasons which were prominent: Debate and decisions
on ecclesiastical marriage of same-sex couples, and digital tools for entry and exit’’ said Byfuglien.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today