The Free Evangelical Fellowship ( Norwegian: , DFEF), formerly called "The Free Friends" () is one of the

Free Church A free church is a Christian denomination that is intrinsically separate from government (as opposed to a state church). A free church does not define government policy, and a free church does not accept church theology or policy definitions from ...

congregations in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The Free Evangelical Fellowship is a nationwide movement with sixty-seven parishes and contact addresses in Norway. The churches are legally independent. It is estimated that the local churches comprise a total of 8,000-10,000 members. Churches are mainly located in the south and west of the country. Its origins date from the 1880s, but it became an established organization after 1900 under the leadership of preacher Erik A. Nordquelle (1858–1938). Its Home and Mission Committee () is a joint mission conducted in several countries in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. The Free Evangelical Fellowship believe in baptism of the Holy Spirit through

speaking in tongues Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is a practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of sp ...

and

healing With physical trauma or disease suffered by an organism, healing involves the repairing of damaged tissue(s), organs and the biological system as a whole and resumption of (normal) functioning. Medicine includes the process by which the cells i ...

prayer Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified a ...

. They also practice

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

and

holy communion The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted ...

(open to non-members). The movement's theological standing is seen as similar to

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

beliefs, but they had historically separated themselves as opponents of state-maintained church member registers. The Free Evangelical Fellowship is therefore not registered as a separate religious branch in Norway. In 2019, the Free Evangelical Fellowship entered into a three-year cooperative trial agreement with the Pentecostal congregations in Norway.

References

{{Reflist

External links

www.dfef.no - The Free Evangelical Fellowship Homepage

DFEF-BUR

Evangelicalism in Norway Pentecostal denominations