The Norwegian Church Abroad Haley Newman
If you have ever looked at a topographic map of modern Norway, you will have noticed that there are mountains running right down the middle of the country, thousands of miles of coastline, and numerous islands along the coast. Since ancient times, people have sailed in order to navigate this geography, leading to master shipbuilders and sailors who eventually made their way around the world. Beginning in the 19th century, the Norwegian church followed their people to foreign lands. Norwegian Sea Churches (Sjømannskirker) sprang up in coastal towns around the world, providing a range of services to Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish sailors. Since their inception, these churches have constantly adapted to the needs of the people they serve, as industries change and world events present new challenges. While the world’s ports are no longer filled with Norwegian ships, the Norwegian Church Abroad, as it is known today, continues to fulfill its mission of serving Norwegians in other countries.
Sailors in Need
In the mid-19th century, the annual tonnage of the Norwegian Merchant Marine was only around 245,000 tons and mostly limited to the Norwegian coast. However, the repeal of restrictive trade laws, emigration, and innovations in shipbuilding led to a massive increase in Norwegian shipping. The early ships that carried Norwegian emigrants across the Atlantic Ocean often carried iron as well. Then these ships would return to Norway with cotton, grains, tobacco, rye, and wood. As the demand for shipping increased, Norwegian ships carried petroleum and lumber around the world, reaching Brazil, Argentina, both American coasts, and numerous other locations. By 1875, the tonnage of the Norwegian Merchant Marine had increased more than fivefold and Norwegian ships had become a common sight, especially in American ports. By 1900, Norway’s fleet was the fourth largest in the world. Being a sailor was dangerous and difficult work at this time. These men could be away from their home country for years at a time and they typically spent days or even weeks at sea. When a ship finally reached a port, the ship’s crew could expect to be in these cities for days or weeks, as the
Vol. 20, No. 1 2022
ship underwent repairs and its cargo was unloaded and loaded without the aid of winches or cranes. These sailors, many of whom were young men, would have time to wander these port cities. They were often tempted by saloons or preyed upon at boarding houses and by foreign shipmasters, losing much of their wages and forgetting their obligations at home. Being robbed, getting drunk, and getting into fights was not seen as a good way for these men to be living. In fact, one Norwegian businessman visiting New York in 1874 was said to have been shocked by the “low state of morals” among the sailors. A few years prior, Norwegian Pastor Johann Cordt Harmens Storjohann had completed his theological education and made a few trips to Britain to study the parish-run free church. There, he made contacts with the British Seamen’s Mission, which had been founded in the early 19th century. One reverend had taken an interest in the Norwegian sailors there, but the language barrier proved to be an obstacle for him. At this time, Norway had a state-sponsored church, the Church of Norway. To Pastor Storjohann, it seemed that the church had forgotten about the thousands of Norwegians who were members of the church but were not in Norway. Inspired by the work of the British Seamen’s Mission, his solution was to bring the church to the Norwegian sailors. In Bergen in 1864, Storjohann founded the Organization for the Preaching of the Gospel to Scandinavian Sailors in Foreign Ports (Foreningen til Evangeliets Forkyndelse for Skandinaviske Sjømænd i Fremmede Havne). Later, the name was shortened to The Seamen’s Mission, though the founders had intentionally avoided using the word ‘mission’ because their objective was not to proselytize. Rather, they aimed to bring the familiarity of the Norwegian Church to those who had already been baptized and raised in the church but happened to not be in Norway.
The Mission’s Work Begins
The mission began their work in English and Scottish ports, but numerous requests also began to come from the United States, where much Norwegian shipping was going on. In the 1860s, the port in Brooklyn, New York City, was seeing around 150 Scandinavian ships per year as well as
11