Bishop Finn Wagle, Nidaros/Trondheim
The outlook from the North
Welcome at the opening service
Nidaros Cathedral, 26 June 2003


Grace be with you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
It is with great joy and anticipation that I welcome you warmly on behalf of the Church of Norway and Nidaros diocese.

We have been expecting you! Not only since the decision was taken that CEC's 12th General Assembly should take place in Norway and in Trondheim. No, we have been expecting you for a thousand years. We have been expecting you to come so that we, Christians from the whole of Europe, can at last be united in giving thanks to God together for the progress of the gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth - northwards through the far-flung continent of Europe.

We are all part of European church history and of the history of the conversion of Europe – for better and for worse. We who are gathered here for the opening service of CEC's assembly, bring with us, individually and together, a part of the story of the Gospel's progress through Europe, our own continent. This is a story that weaves us together with invisible threads, made visible at this moment, here in Nidaros Cathedral. Never before has this common history been made visible with such great density and diversity so far north in Europe as at this moment. That makes this morning and these days especially important for us.

The history of theEuropean churches is a history of factors that divide us and factors that unite us and bind us together. Seen from Nidaros Cathedral, it is the uniting power of the history of Christianisation that first springs to mind: We are gathered here in the northernmost of Europe's ancient cathedrals, Christ Church in Nidaros, the burial place of Saint Olav, the patron saint of Norway. We know that in the course of his life Olav was deeply in touch with the main routes that the gospel followed in its progress northwards across Europe. He must have picked up impulses from the various forms that the gospel took along these different routes in Eastern, Western and Central Europe: He was baptised in Rouen in France. He imported his bishops from England. And he spent his last winter with his relative Prince Jaroslav in Novgorod in Russia, before he died at the Battle of Stiklestad here in Nidaros in the year 1030.

Can't we just sense how the various traditions and expressions of faith merged and became an integrating force in the martyr king's life? And doesn't this give us a fascinating perspective on the riches this assembly possesses and the challenges it faces? Among our rich variety of traditions and experiences and expressions of faith, what is it that these days in Trondheim will cause to melt and merge, when CEC's General Assembly looks towards Europe from the far north?

The outlook from the north:

· It must be an outlook that gathers its strength and inspiration from our various traditions and expressions of faith, taking into account that the area of this Assembly also is an area of indigenous people.
· It must be an outlook that doesn't stop at Europe's borders, but reaches from the ends of the earth to the ends of the earth.
Let us pray that CEC's outlook from the north may be saturated by a healed view of life itself: that our lives are woven together in the rich tapestry of vulnerability, made holy by Him who made Himself vulnerable for our sake.

We bring this longing for reconciliation and healing with us to the CEC Assembly. For some of you, this longing is manifested in the water you have brought with you from your homes, – water: that most basic element of human life. After a reading from the Gospel of St John, I ask you to bring this water from the four corners of Europe and of this cathedral, so that it can mingle here in the large bowl placed in the transept, and be a symbol of our common baptism and our common faith.