Presentation of Norway – Concluding greetings

We would like to conclude the Presentation of Norway by giving you all a gift as a greeting from the diocese of Nidaros. It is a gift that will show you one of the things that our church is concerned about at the moment: sustainable development. The churches have a considerable contribution to make to the struggle for sustainable development.

One of the church’s most important contributions is the language of hymns, or what we could call our hymnic language. The church’s language is not the language of conferences but the hymnic language; it is the singing. The created world has been singing since the dawn of creation. We hear its song as a song of praise and a song of lamentation. It is the church’s God-given task to discover this song, it sense it, to listen to it and to participate in it in a way that can speak to the heart of man.

The greeting you are now to receive is about the song, which is being sung today by our wounded planet. We have tried to sense the song and to bring it to you in the language that can speak to the heart, the hymnic language. You are all going to receive a “hustavle”. “Hustavle” is a Norwegian word for a basic, important text. A hustavle was a set of “household rules” given a decorative form which made it suitable to be framed and hung in the house. This hustavle was created for a conference on sustainable development here in Trondheim two years ago.

You will receive this hustavle to take with you when we now leave the Trondheim Spektrum and make our way to the all-night service and vigil in Nidaros Cathedral. When you leave the plenary hall, go to the table with the hustavle in the language you prefer.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ let us go in peace, sensing the song and participating in the song of the Earth!

28.06.2003

Finn Wagle