Mo Church ( no, Mo kirke) is a parish church of the

Church of Norway The Church of Norway ( nb, Den norske kirke, nn, Den norske kyrkja, se, Norgga girku, sma, Nöörjen gærhkoe) is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. The church b ...

Rana Municipality Rana is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Helgeland Districts of Norway, traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Mo i Rana, ...

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, N ...

county, Norway. It is located in the town of Mo i Rana. It is the church for the Mo parish which is part of the

Indre Helgeland prosti Indre (; oc, Endre) is a landlocked department in central France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are known as the ''Indriens'' (masculine; ) and ''Indriennes'' (feminine; ). Indre is part of the current administra ...

(

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residenc ...

) in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland. The white, cruciform, wooden church was built in a neo-gothic style in 1724 using plans drawn up by the architects

Andreas Grenstad Andreas Nilsen Grenstad (1821-1895) was a Norwegian architect who was best known for the churches that he designed. His nickname was ''Anders Kirkebygger'' (Andreas the church-builder). Grenstad was born on the Grendstad farm in what was Klæb ...

and Espen Poulson. The church seats about 400 people.

History

The church in Mo i Rana was founded in 1723-1724 when missionary

Thomas von Westen Thomas von Westen (13 September 1682 – 9 April 1727) was a Norwegian Lutheran priest and missionary. He was a driving force in the Sami mission, and founded the education institution ''Seminarium Scholasticum'', the later Seminarium Lapponic ...

led the construction of the new church. The first worship service held in the new church was on 6 January 1724. In 1832 the church underwent a renovation and expansion of the building. It included building a higher and steeper roof with a small onion dome tower on top. In 1860, the interior was redesigned. The church also underwent renovations in 1956 and again in 2007.

Media gallery

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References

{{use dmy dates, date=April 2021 Rana, Norway Churches in Nordland Wooden churches in Norway Cruciform churches in Norway 18th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1724 1724 establishments in Norway

History

Media gallery

See also

References