THE
ANGLO-NORDIC-BALTIC
THEOLOGICAL
CONFERENCE.
The first Conferences
The first meeting of the Conference took place in Cambridge in 1929, and the theme was, appropriately, the
Doctrine of the Church: Comparative Points of View, Anglican and Lutheran. The list of names testifies to the strong
conviction by the member-churches that here was an important initiative, which
would contribute to the theological rapprochement between our respective
churches. For example, from Finland came Aleksi Lehtonen, from Sweden, Gustaf Aulén, and from England, Oliver Quick.
It is clear from the accounts of this and subsequent gatherings that the
atmosphere of personal encounter was fundamental. The Conferences were not intended to draft
ecumenical agreements but to feed a deeper growth of church theologians in
their corporate life together.
For reasons of
convenience rather than conviction, the language of the Conference has always
been English, which necessitated having an English Chairman and Secretary, as
time went on. Richard Parsons, Bishop
of Southwark and then Hereford, chaired them from 1936-1949, when Leslie
Hunter, Bishop of Sheffield took over, who in turn handed over to Professor
Geoffrey Lampe in 1965. Professor
Stephen Sykes assumed his mantle in 1981, and was made Bishop of Ely in
1990. In 1997 he handed over the
Chairmanship to Kenneth Stevenson, who had been Secretary since 1987, and
became Bishop of Portsmouth in 1995. At that stage, Martin Kitchen, then
Vice-Dean of Durham, and now Dean of Derby, became the Secretary. The names of participants from the various
nations include Eivind Berggrav and Einar Molland (Norway), Regin Prenter and P.G. Lindhart (Denmark), and Michael Ramsey, later Archbishop of Canterbury (England).
The Bishop of
Chelmsford, Bishop John Gladwin, will be taking the Chair this year, in the
light of the illness of Bishop Kenneth Stevenson. We shall also be assisted by The Rev'd
Christofer Lundgren, who will be the Conference Chaplain.
The Conference
attempted to meet approximately every two years - a sequence which was
inevitably interrupted by the Second World War. Although the Baltic Lutheran
Churches had increasing contacts with Finland and Sweden, and a little contact with England, they were not able at this early stage to participate. One of the
indirect results of the Conferences was the growing ecumenical dialogue at the
official level between these various Lutheran Churches and the Anglican Churches of the British Isles, which bore fruit in the Porvoo Common Statement (1993).
Recent Developments
As the theological encounters continued, and contacts between the Nordic
Churches with England increased, a need was felt to provide a comparable forum for parish
clergy to meet each other. Accordingly,
in 1978 the first Anglo-Scandinavian Pastoral Conference was held in Sweden, and these have met in alternate years ever since, including in Iceland in 1993. History was made at the
Theological Conference in 1989 in Visby, Sweden, when for the first time, official representatives from the Estonian
and Latvian Churches attended. No one
who was present at that meeting will ever forget the symbolic character of the
venue - the beautiful and historic island of Gotland. Since that time, the Conference has spontaneously re-named itself as
the Anglo-Nordic-Baltic Theological Conference, in the interests of greater
accuracy and scope. The Church of Ireland was represented at the Riga Conference in 2003, and the Lutheran
Churches of Lithuania and Poland were represented for the first time
at Joensuu in 2005.
The Purpose of the Conferences
Invitations to
participate in the Conferences have always been extended both to professional
theologians teaching in Universities and Seminaries, and also to church
leaders. What is sought is a meeting of
theological insight and concern for the life of the present church; both
strands in the Conference are equally valued.
All participants have enjoyed the opportunity to be exposed to a variety
of styles of theology, and the differences which exist within, as well as
between, the Lutheran and Anglican delegations. The respective churches commonly use the
Conferences as a way of introducing Lutherans to Anglicans, and Anglicans to
Lutherans, in the Nordic-Baltic context. There is a tradition of hospitality
and preaching in churches of the host country. Since the signing of the Porvoo
Agreement it has become more important than ever for us to have a forum in
which delegates from member churches can meet, talk and do theology as members
of the same family. The conference has stayed true to its roots in remaining a
place for theological encounter free from the need to produce agreed
statements, thus allowing genuine conversation and engagement to take place.
Background
Contact between
the British Isles and the Nordic
and Baltic nations goes back a long way.
In the Middle Ages trading links made for strong relationships, for
example between England and Norway when
Christianity was introduced to Norway at the end of
the tenth century. There were, moreover, parts of the present United Kingdom that were in the
ecclesiastical province of Nidaros. At the Reformation, theological
cross-fertilisation was not so strong, though there is evidence of influence
from Denmark on the early
Scottish Reformed Church. In the immediately following centuries, individuals
travelled across the Nordic seas; for
example, the great nineteenth-century Danish theologian, educationalist and
hymn-writer, N.F.S. Grundtvig visited England several times,
which had a profound effect on his researches into the old Nordic myths.
In our own
century, the two most important direct influences on the formation of our
Conference were, in the first place, the 1925 Conference on Life and Work, at Stockholm in 1925,
in which the central figure of Nathaniel SÅderblom
stands supreme. The other was the
individual initiative of Arthur Headlam, Bishop of Gloucester, in making
personal contact with various Scandinavian theologians and churchmen. Among them was Dr. Kenneth Stevenson's
grandfather, Skat Hoffmeyer, who was at the time a pastor in Jutland, and who
later became Bishop of Århus. Bishop
Hoffmeyer took part in the Conferences after the Second World War.
The
Conference - dates, themes and venues over the years
1929 The
Doctrine of the Church:
Comparative Points of View, Lutheran
and Anglican Cambridge (England)
1931 Christianity
and Platonism Sparreholm
(Sweden)
1934 Salvation Gloucester (England)
1936 The
Church Fritzoehus
(Norway)
1939 The
Atonement Durham (England)
1947 Law Liselund
(Denmark)
1950 The
Eucharist and the Christian Life Durham (England)
1952 The
Christian Conception of Man J ärvanpää (Finland)
1955 The
Church and State Sheffield (England)
1957 Scripture
and Tradition Båstad
(Sweden)
1959 The
Gospel and the Modern World Oxford (England)
1961 The
Mission of the People of God Oslo (Norway)
1963 Creation Rugby (England)
1965 Baptism Løgumkloster (Denmark)
1967 Christian
Theology and its Contemporary Setting Cambridge (England)
1969 Incarnation Järvanpää
(Finland)
1973 Interpretation
in an Age of Historical Criticism Graninge
(Sweden)
1975 Man's
Understanding of his Salvation Canterbury (England)
1977 The
Church and the Structures ofSociety Utstein
(Norway)
1979 The
distinctiveness of Christian Revelation Lincoln
(England)
1981 The
future of Western Protestanism Copenhagen
(Denmark)
1983 Freedom
in Christ and Contemporary Concepts of Freedom York (England)
1985 Ecclesiology
in the Light of recent Ecumenism Larkulla
(Finland)
1987 The
Presence of Christ Salisbury (England)
1989 Creation Visby (Sweden)
1991 Growing
up into Christ Durham
(England)
1993 The
Church: Sign, Instrument and Foretaste of the Kingdom Lohusalu (Estonia)
1995 Initiation Verdal
(Norway)
1997 Salvation Cambridge (England)
1999 Christianity
Facing the Millennium Portsmouth (England)
2001 Theology
and Music Århus
(Denmark)
2003 Atonement
and Memory Riga (Latvia)
2005 Understanding
Salvation: justification and theôsis Joensuu
(Finland)
2007 The
Holy Spirit Uppsala (Sweden)
2009 Theology
and Art Canterbury (England)
2012 Being
Together: Christian Anthropology Mirfield
(England)
2013 Education,
Ethos and Social Transformation Dublin (Ireland)
2015 Theology in the Public Square Turku (Finland)
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