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155 Chapter 11 Easter 1942 Calls for a Declaration The Annunciation Day protest proceeded as planned, but not without signs of unrest in the ranks. Some pastors in Kristiansand and Stavanger only read summaries or did not read the protest statement at all.1 Behind their decisions was the realization that the status quo was problematic. If the crisis justified the resignation of the bishops, why not the clergy? How could the clergy remain in office and not recognize the Quislingappointed bishops and deans? Were the protests squandering the church’s spiritual and moral capital? Should the clergy resign without a new provocation ?2 In the meantime, the government dismissed four clergy members on 5 March and a rumor spread that it was preparing preemptive action.3 In Oslo, the clergy behind the Annunciation Day protest were pressing for a clear break before the state seized the initiative. The status quo could not hold. After the clergy were reprimanded for recognizing the authority of the “dismissed” bishops, clergymen in Bergen sent a protest draft to the CCC.4 Their protest was against the state’s interference in the church, compulsory youth service, and the constitutional amendment barring Jews from the country. The statement concluded by offering alternatives for action: remaining in office on a purely Christian basis or resigning. They suggested Easter Sunday as a date for reading the protest.5 In early 1941, Bishop Gabriel Skagestad, Dean Kornelius O. Kornelius , and General Secretary Einar P. Amdahl of the Norwegian Mission 156 · Resistance Society formed the Christian Consultative Council for the Stavanger Diocese . Olav Valen-Sendstad, a local pastor and theologian, joined the group in early March 1942. Kornelius and Amdahl had attended the first meeting of the Bergen clergy and on 18 March received the final draft of their protest. After conferring on the Bergen draft and discussing another by Valen-Sendstad, the Stavanger CCC supported the Bergen proposal and commissioned Valen-Sendstad to present it to the Oslo CCC. The Stavanger CCC had in mind a protest rather than a principled declaration of the Christian faith in relation to the state, but on the train to Oslo, Valen-Sendstad became captivated by the thought of a “kind of new Augustana” (Augsburg Confession) on church and state.”6 Berggrav had also been thinking about a principled declaration and mentioned it to the CCC on 11 March. Five days later he proposed that the CCC draft “a confessional statement on a broad Christian basis.”7 The CCC agreed. They also agreed that only the CCC should compose the declaration and send the signal for action. By 18 March, the CCC must have arrived at a consensus that the clergy should collectively resign from their state offices. Composing a Confession On Annunciation Day, Sunday, 22 March, the CCC met for the first time with Valen-Sendstad. He shared the Bergen and Stavanger drafts and argued for a theological declaration as he shared his own. The group agreed on a broad and unified approach, and Berggrav laid out the main points that needed to be included. He was against including a statement about the Jews, as the Bergen protest did, because it would deflect attention from the church’s reckoning with the state.8 Valen-Sendstad agreed. For the next meeting, each member was to prepare points for Berggrav to use in formulating the declaration.9 Berggrav completed his draft on Thursday morning, 26 March, and later in the day the CCC agreed on its main points while wanting others revised. Hansson also shared ideas on ordination and the relation to the state church that found their way into the final document. The meeting concluded with Berggrav receiving Hansson’s draft and the assignment to complete a final draft by the next meeting, set for 6 p.m., Saturday, 28 March. Easter 1942 · 157 At that meeting, the CCC reviewed Berggrav’s final draft. It was the most serious and moving gathering of the CCC to date.10 One reason was the double formulation: “We confess—We condemn.” Skagestad suggested the formula, inspired by the parallelism of the Lutheran confessions . The other reason was the CCC’s decision to have clergy read the declaration, now titled The Foundation of the Church: A Confession and a Declaration (Kirkens Grunn: En bekjennelse og en erklæring), on Easter Sunday, 5 April. The timing was tight. The sources do not reveal much about when and where the CCC discussed the resignation statement and weighed the...

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