Olav Fykse Tveit nominated as head of the Bishops' Conference of the Church of Norway
The Bishops’ Conference of the Church of Norway has nominated World Council of Churches general secretary Olav Fykse Tveit as its new presiding bishop. In 2018, Fyske Tveit announced he would not be seeking a third five-year term as WCC general secretary.
“We are delighted and grateful that Dr. Fykse Tveit has confirmed that he is accepting the nomination and is willing to make himself available to become a bishop in our church and for the Bishops’ Conference,” said the current presiding bishop, Helga Haugland Byfuglien.
The nomination is now being forwarded to the National Church Council, which is responsible for the further process until the appointment. The NCC has arranged for appointment at its meeting in Trondheim on January 30–31, 2020.
Fykse Tveit expressed deep appreciation: “I am thankful, humbled and honored by the confidence expressed in me by the Bishops’ Conference, being aware of the many dimensions and responsibilities of such a task,” he said. “I have made myself available for this process and have accepted the nomination as a call to continue to serve the church. I now wait for the final outcome of this process.”
Fykse Tveit was elected general secretary of the WCC in August 2009 and was reelected to a second term in July 2014. At the time of his nomination, he was the general secretary of the Church of Norway Council on Ecumenical and International Relations.
As general secretary of the WCC, Fykse Tveit has led the fellowship of churches through such gatherings as the 2011 International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in Kingston, Jamaica, and the Tenth Assembly of the WCC. He has also been instrumental in leadership of international consultations on such topics as climate change, peacemaking, and refugee resettlement. —World Council of Churches
