Baptist Union of Norway
Raised in a Haugianer family in Orkanger, he moved to Copenhagen in 1837 to attend missionary training.
Svee returned to Orkanger in 1842 and died a year later, never establishing a congregation in Norway.
The Swedish Baptist Fredrik Olaus Nilsson visited Norway several times from 1851, but his preaching was futile.
[4] Rymker continued to travel and preach until 1862, funded through grants from congregations in the United States.
The Swedish pastor Sven Svensson visited the city, funded by the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) and helped incorporate a congregation in 1874.
It became the subject of personal conflicts and part of the congregation split in favor of the Adventist Church, and the organization was disestablished in 1880.
[7] All the congregations were established as independent denominations under the protection that the Dissenter Act provided, even if they could have as few as six members.
This established a common understanding of the legal and organizational independence of each congregation, while retaining the need for a national administrative and theological coordination.
By the early 1870s the congregations in Skien, Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø had largely taken on regional responsibilities and covered areas far exceeding the city limits.
[7] The Sønnenfjellske District Association was founded in 1872 as a cooperative body in Eastern Norway.
An agreement was made whereby a national union would be established and receive financial support from BMS.
[10] The formal decision to establish the Baptist Union of Norway was taken at the second national conference, held in Trondheim the following year.
These initiatives led to the union establishing a publishing office, Den evangeliske Bok & Traktatforening.
[14] The establishment of the seminary caused a close connection between the Norwegian Baptist congregations and that of the Midwestern United States; it was the source of new inspiration.
[15] The number of Baptist congregations reached eighteen in 1886, although the membership growth was significantly steeper with 1,335 members that year.
[16] BMS announced in 1890 that it would withdraw all financial support for work in Norway starting in 1892.
[18] The Norwegian Baptist Theological Seminary was founded in 1910, allowing both pastors and missionaries to be educated domestically for the first time.
[21] The network was gradually expanded and by the 1970s there were additional missionary stations in Bondo, Butu, Likati and Ndu.
Another attempt to spread the word in Northern Norway took place through the "skerries mission".
Membership numbers grew again during the 1930s and hit an all-time high of 7,500 members in the late 1940s.
[28] The missionary activity was expanded from 1984, when the annual conference voted to allow mission to other countries than Zaïre.
[30] The congress of the European Baptist Federation was hosted in Lillehammer in 1994, with the union as the organizer.
[34] Oslo Third Baptist Congregation was excluded from the union in 2006 after it had elected a member living in a same-sex partnership to its board.
Based on a form of weak congregationalism, these are autonomous organizations which elect their own leadership.
It appoints the main board, other committees and various issues regarding economy, institutions and plans.
[41] The Norwegian School of Leadership and Theology is an accredited college jointly owned by the Baptist Union and Filadelfia Oslo, a Pentecostal congregation.
[42] Approved by the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education, it offers a three-year bachelor's degree in leadership and theology, and a one-year course in Christianity.
