Seventh-day Adventist Church in Norway Votes to Stop Ordaining Pastors

On September 20, 2015, the Executive Committee of the Norwegian Union of the Seventh-day Adventist Church voted to stop ordaining pastors, both male and female. According to a statement posted on the union’s website, the action changes a previously established practice. The union said it was acting in loyalty to a vote at San Antonio that summer not to allow individual world divisions of the church to decide on the ordination of female pastors.

The document prepared for the committee cites General Conference Working Policy BA 60 05, Basic Principles, which states: “The Church rejects any system or philosophy which discriminates against anyone on the basis of race, color, or gender. The Church bases its position on principles clearly enunciated in the Bible, the writings of Ellen G White, and the official pronouncements of the General Conference.”

The committee’s backing material says that the ordination practice followed by the church for many years has been at odds with the biblical principle of the equality of all human beings. It refers to the priesthood of all believers and states that the church cannot respect the fundamental human right of equality without reassessing how ordination has been practiced in the past.

The statement says the world church conducted a thorough study of the theology of ordination over the previous five years and that world leadership has recognized two opposing views held by conscientious and loyal Adventists. It also says world leadership has not provided room for unions that believe the present practice is biblically wrong to follow their conscience within the bounds of voted church policy, a situation that placed the Norwegian Union in a very difficult position. Finn F. Eckhoff, Secretary of the Norwegian Union, said: “The Norwegian Union does not want to be rebellious or to break away from the global Seventh-day Adventist fellowship. This is very important to us.” The union’s stated desire to remain in the global fellowship reflects the value of staying together in unity (Psalm 133:1).

Union President Reidar J. Kvinge also stressed that the union does not want to rebel against the global church, but said the vote arose from a conviction that equality between the genders is a biblical principle. “It is a matter of conscience for the Norwegian Union,” said Kvinge. He added: “We cannot see any Biblical foundation for the ordination practice our church has followed for many years. That is the reason for our vote to discontinue the practice. The New Testament does not give us a command to discriminate against women in pastoral ministry.”

The action contains six points. The first asks Seventh-day Adventist world leadership to revisit the recommendations of an 871-page report by the Biblical Research Committee of the Trans-European Division. The report, as quoted in the statement, recommends that the church admit there is no biblical command to ordain anyone by the imposition of hands and no consistent biblical formula for how a leader is inducted into office. Under the new arrangement, the Norwegian church will use a simple dedicatory prayer for a person beginning pastoral internship and a similar prayer for those moving from internship to regular pastoral service. The union will recognize only two categories of pastoral employees, those in regular service and pastoral interns, and will not report pastoral employees to the Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook until the General Conference establishes categories that are not discriminatory.

The statement notes that the theme of ordination has been studied for more than thirty years, but it has not been possible to establish a clear biblical basis for the practice the church follows. The Norwegian church has therefore decided to encourage world church leadership to establish a biblically based practice that does not threaten the unity of the church.

The source also notes that for many years the church in Norway has treated men and women in pastoral ministry with equality. Pastoral employees have the same wage scale and terms regardless of gender, even though ordination has been limited to men.

Source: Read the original report