Reykjavík Grapevine - 28.08.2010, Side 8

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8
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 13 — 2010 The National Church has found itself in a rather massive scandal. Keep an eye on
Grapevine.is as this story continues to unfold ...
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Iceland has been a part of the govern-
ment since the constitution established
it as such in 1874. While most Iceland-
ers are decidedly irreligious or not very
religious, they have for the most part not
been very vocal in calling for the sepa-
ration of church and state. A series of
recent events has changed all that, to
where even the Prime Minister herself
has said she has considered unregis-
tering herself from the church, and that
she would like the government to “work
towards” separation of church and state.
First, a little background
About 65% of Icelanders are in favor of
separation of church and state, accord-
ing to a poll conducted by the Humanist
Society in 2006. 43% said they never go
to church. The next highest percentage
- 17.4% - go two to three times a year.
15.9%, once a year. At the same time, the
church receives around 5 billion ISK per
year in the form of state revenues, and
the bishop himself earns almost 1 mil-
lion ISK per month. While this has been
more or less common knowledge for
some time, the economic crisis brought
this fact to light in conversations on how
to save state revenues. This was under-
lined when, earlier in August, the Church
of Iceland rejected a government pro-
posal to cut their budget by 9%, offering
instead to have their budget cut by 5%,
with certain conditions.
The tipping point in the discus-
sion, however, had nothing to do with
money. Instead, it was centred around
one woman - Guðrún Ebba Ólafsdóttir,
daughter of former bishop Ólafur Skúla-
son. She wrote a letter to the current
bishop, Karl Sigurbjörnsson, calling for
the church to take additional measures
to combat sexual abuse between clergy
and the congregation. She urged the
church to "come clean" and to confront
instances of sexual abuse that have
been committed within the walls of the
church.
Guðrún Ebba specifically spoke up
about the abuse she suffered at the
hands of her father, and she wasn't
alone. Several other women have since
come forward, saying that they were
also molested by Ólafur, and that they
reported this to church officials, but they
were told to stay quiet. The church never
reported the matter to the police. In re-
sponse to the criticism, the bishop sent
a letter to the media stating that one of
the women accusing Ólafur of molesta-
tion had gone to the state prosecutor,
who told her that there wasn't enough
evidence to press charges. However, in
reality, it was Ólafur himself who wanted
to press charges against his accusers,
and the state prosecutor had advised
him not to pursue the case. The bishop
later apologized for this inaccuracy, call-
ing it "a slip of the pen."
Keeping it to Themselves
The entire issue involving the church's
treatment, past and present, of the Óla-
fur Skúlason matter has led to more
general discussion about how the
church handles cases of sexual abuse
in general. Gunnar Rúnar Matthíasson,
head of a special committee within the
church that oversees incidences of sex-
ual abuse within the congregation, told
the press that the church is fully aware
of instances of sexual abuse, and has for
a long time fought against it. He would
not, however, disclose just how many in-
stances of sexual abuse between clergy
and members of the congregation have
been reported, saying only that there
has been more than one.
The matter was not helped when
Reykholt priest Geir Waage – a clergy-
man known for his often outdated and
decidedly conservative opinions – told
reporters that the church's vow of si-
lence with regards to confessions takes
precedence over the law when it comes
to matters of sexual abuse, arguing that
the sanctity of the confessional must
be "all or nothing", adding, “That which
a priest hears in the confessional must
never, under any circumstances, go any
further. The vow of silence is either all
or nothing. The credibility of a priest is
gone if people cannot rely on what they
say to a priest staying with him.”
The public reaction was understand-
ably one of outrage, and the church
went immediately on the defensive. It
should be noted that many members of
the clergy spoke out against Waage's
remarks, including the bishop himself.
One priest, Bjarni Karlsson, called for
Waage to be ousted from his office alto-
gether. The church also made an effort
to show it was doing its part to combat
sex abuse within its walls, announcing
that it will now require that all church
staff allow the bishop access to their po-
lice records. The rule, which applies to
both salaried staff and volunteers, has in
fact been in effect for the past 12 years,
so the church's move is more one of
stating that they would start to enforce
it.
Public Reaction and Official Lack of
Action
Despite these efforts, the National
Registry has reported that hundreds of
Icelanders have recently been unreg-
istering themselves from the church
(all Icelanders are registered with the
church by default; filling out a free form,
either on paper or online, is required to
change this). Icelanders have been en-
couraging each other, through social
networking sites such as Facebook and
others, to unregister.
The debacle had prompted the one
government official closest to the church
– the Minister of Justice, as the ministry
oversees ecclesiastical affairs – to meet
with the bishop, to discuss both Waage's
remarks in particular and church mat-
ters in general. In the end, though, she
washed her hands of their troubles, tell-
ing reporters that “the church needs to
handle its own matters themselves.”
The bishop has also been on the
defensive, and not just with regards to
his “slip of the pen” - many have been
calling for his resignation. Speaking on
the television news discussion show
Kastljósið recently, the bishop said he
believes he still has the support of the
nation, and does not plan to resign.
The media has even turned its at-
tention to the nation's political leaders,
asking for their opinion on separation
of church and state. As it turns out,
half the government favors separation
of church and state: the chairpeople of
the parties leading the government -
Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
of the Social Democrats and Minister
of Finance Steingrímur J. Sigfússon of
the Leftist-Greens - have recently told
reporters that they would like the gov-
ernment to "work towards" separation
of church and state. In agreement are
Minister of Culture and Education Katrín
Jakobsdóttir, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Össur Skarphéðinsson, Minister of Busi-
ness and Economics Gylfi Magnússon,
and Minister of Industry Katrín Júlíus-
dóttir. While neither Össur nor Katrín Ja-
kobsdóttir are registered in the national
church, Gylfi and Katrín Júlíusdóttir
both are, although they have said they
have recently considered unregistering.
Chairman of the Foreign Affairs commit-
tee Árni Þór Sigurðsson recently wrote
an article calling for “a serious discus-
sion on the separation of church and
state.”
Uncertain Future
At the time of this writing, the future of
the church remains unclear. Naturally,
most clergy are nervous about the idea
– if the church had to survive on dona-
tions alone, given the church's low at-
tendance rates, their size (and clergy
salaries) would have to be drastically
reduced. But more importantly, clergy
who have dedicated themselves to the
spiritual guidance of others are under-
standably hurt. Reverend Halldór Gun-
narsson, who sits on the church coun-
cil, wrote an article of Morgunblaðið
entitled "An Apology". Therein, he says
in part, "As one of the church's leaders,
I ask these women, who have suffered
because of [former bishop Ólafur Skúla-
son], to forgive the Icelandic church. I
apologize to my nation and ask also the
church to seize the day today, and the
days to come, to rebuild trust anew, so
that there will be no separation between
the nation and the church."
Whether Reverend Gunnarsson's
wish will come true remains to be seen.
Whatever happens, it is unlikely the Ice-
landic people's relationship with their
church will ever be the same again.
News | This week in God
Iceland's Church Reaches a Turning Point
“The National Registry
has reported that
hundreds of Icelanders
have recently been
unregistering themselves
from the church“
Is Separation of Church and State Around the Corner?
Words
Paul Nikolov
Photography
Hörður Sveinsson