Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.01.2006, Qupperneq 15
One of the most recognisable sym-
bols of Reykjavík is Hallgrímskirkja,
a towering concrete church that sits
upon one of the highest points of the
city, and is clearly visible from just
about anywhere in the capital area.
In fact, from the nation’s capital
to the smallest village, the church
almost always takes the high ground.
Which would stand to reason – the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Iceland enjoys the financial support
of the Icelandic fiscal budget, and is
a part of the Ministry of Justice.
What you won’t see, neither sitting
on a hill nor anywhere else, is a
mosque or an Orthodox church, de-
spite the fact that there are hundreds
of Muslims and Orthodox Chris-
tians living in Iceland, and despite
the fact that both of these religious
groups have been trying to get land
to build their own houses of worship
for at least the past five years. The
only thing standing in the way of
a mosque or an Orthodox church
being built in Reykjavík is Reykjavík
City Council.
As of now, Reykjavík’s Orthodox
community worships in a largish
apartment owned by the Russian
embassy, just across the street from
the Catholic church (the official
church of Iceland from 1000 until
1550, when Bishop Jón Arason was
beheaded). The Grapevine attended
a service being held in honour of
St. Nicholas. Among the fifty or so
worshippers crowded into the space
were chief planning official of the
Reykjavík planning office Helga
Bragadóttir, managing director of
Landsbanki Brynjólfur Helgason,
and President of Iceland Ólafur
Ragnar Grímsson.
The priest, Reverend Timofei,
began the service by explaining that
this mass was to be a compromise of
sorts.
“Orthodox mass is a bit longer
than Lutheran mass,” he said, almost
apologetically, “so we will try to pre-
serve the beauty of Orthodox mass
while trying to make sure that it
isn’t too long for some of our special
guests here today.”
Mass then began, with most of
the worshippers standing throughout
most of the service while the special
guests sat in chairs.
At the service’s conclusion,
which had included prayers dedi-
cated to President Grímsson (whom
Reverend Timofei described to the
Grapevine as “always very supportive
of the Orthodox church here in Ice-
land”), the president was presented
with an Orthodox calendar. The
guests did not stay for very long
afterwards, but the Grapevine got
the chance to speak with Reverend
Timofei about the precarious situa-
tion the Orthodox community now
finds itself in.
“The Russian embassy owns
this apartment,” he explained, “and
they’ve been very gracious about
letting us use this space for worship.
But we will have to move out by the
end of January, because they need it
back.”
“Where will worship be held
then?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said.
In November 2004, members of the
Orthodox Church of Iceland applied
to Reykjavík City Council for a plot
of land to build a church.
“They told us that it’s a long proc-
ess,” said Reverend Timofei, “and
that the first step is asking the neigh-
bours if they would accept the idea of
an Orthodox church next to them.”
The Orthodox met with city council
next in June 2005, where they were
told there was “good news.”
“We were told that a plot of land
had been decided on, at Öskjuhlíð,”
Reverend Timofei told the Grape-
vine. “And that the whole process
would be finished by September.”
Content in this knowledge, they
waited through the summer. When
September came and went without
any word, they began to get “a little
worried.” In November, they decided
to contact the city council again to
see what progress had been made.
“They told us that they hadn’t
yet gotten around to talking to the
neighbours,” sighed Reverend Timo-
fei. “Nothing had happened.”
When asked what reasons, if any,
were given for the delay, Reverend
Timofei told us, “They told us
that there was to be a crematorium
nearby, and they weren’t certain how
we would feel about that.” At this
point, he chuckled wryly, shaking
his head. “Cremation certainly isn’t
traditional to the Orthodox faith, but
we do it. There are even churches in
Moscow that perform cremations.
We’re not against them.”
Adding insult to injury, the
process itself expired at the end of
December 2005. At the time the
Grapevine spoke with Reverend
Timofei, he had basically two op-
tions: get an extension from Mayor
Steinunn Valdís Óskarsdóttir, or
begin the process all over again. He
told us that he had written to the
mayor in November, but had not
yet heard back from her. He is still
waiting to hear from her at the time
of this writing.
Sharing a potential plot of land near
the planned Orthodox Church is
a planned mosque. The Grapevine
contacted chairman of the As-
sociation for Muslims in Iceland
Salmann Tamimi to see if Iceland’s
Muslim community – which Tamimi
estimates number around 400 – had
fared any better with Reykjavík City
Council.
“We first applied for a plot of
land [also at Öskjuhlíð] in January
2001,” he told us. “And we were told
that we would have land to build a
mosque. Will that ever be? I don’t
know.”
The Muslim community was
initially offered a plot of land
measuring 1,500 square metres – less
than half of the 3,500 square metres
required for the mosque, library and
of course parking lot for worshippers.
Tamimi was visibly upset when
talking about the process the Muslim
community has been going through
in getting a plot of land from city
council.
“We never received a written
answer about anything,” he told the
Grapevine. “It’s been very frustrat-
ing. There is never a concrete answer
to our questions about what’s going
on. It’s beginning to get on my
nerves.”
Currently, Iceland’s Muslim
community squeezes into a confer-
ence hall on Ármúli that measures
“about 100 square metres, which is
just about large enough for us to pray
in.”
“And that’s just a temporary situ-
ation,” Tamimi told us, “it’s just one
big room. It’s completely unsuitable.
But we really need some answers
before [city council] elections come
up [this spring].”
The Grapevine spoke with Dagur
B. Eggertsson, a member of city
council, a member of the planning
office since December 2004, and
currently a mayoral contender for the
Social Democratic Party. Eggerts-
son confirmed everything Reverend
Timofei had told us, but seemed to
imply that the Muslim complaint
that the land they were offered was
too small had somehow interfered
with the process of getting land for
the Orthodox Church.
“We began working on setting
aside this land for these religious
houses in November 2004,” he ex-
plained. “but then the Muslims told
us that the land we had offered them
was too small. So we began work-
ing on that, and that has taken some
time. But I hope to get this taken
care of in the beginning of [2006].”
When the Grapevine asked if
the separate requests for land from
the Orthodox and the Muslims were
being handled as a group, Eggerts-
son told us, “When you set aside a
piece of land where two different
people are going to be living next to
each other, you are required by law
to handle them together. And there
you run into certain complexities,
where you have to look at who fits
with who, whether you’re talking
about houses, or shops, or churches.
And churches can be quite sensi-
tive, particularly towards each other.
But I think there is some ingrown
prejudice as well, that churches hate
each other. I do not think they do.”
When the Grapevine then
asked if either the Orthodox or the
Muslims had expressed any concerns
about living next to each other,
Eggertsson replied, “No, I think
that there were some concerns that
[living next to each other] would
lead to in-fighting between them,”
but reiterated that no representatives
from the Orthodox or the Muslim
communities ever said they were
against the idea of living next to each
other.
Eggertsson told the Grapevine
that he hopes to complete the proc-
ess of getting land for the Orthodox
and Muslim communities to build
houses of worship “early this year.”
“But it’s a work in progress,” he
added, “so we’ll see.”
You Can Worship Your God
Just not where we can see it
by Paul F. Nikolov
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