Odd Bondevik (20 June 1941 – 6 September 2014) was a Norwegian theologian who was the

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

of the

Diocese of Møre The Diocese of Møre ( no, Møre bispedømme) is a diocese in the Church of Norway which geographically consists of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. Its bishop is seated at the Molde Cathedral which is located in the county administrative center ...

in the Church of Norway from 17 November 1991 until retirement in 2008. He also served as Preses of the Bishop's Conference of the Church of Norway from 1998 until 2002.Odd Bondevik
Store Norske Leksikon, retrieved 6 April 2013

Career

Bondevik was born in

Sauda Sauda ''()'' is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Sauda, where most of the population lives. Other villages in the municipality include Saudasjøen and Amdal. Despite being i ...

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 the ...

on 20 June 1941. His family moved to

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

when he was 8 years old since his father, Kjell Bondevik had been elected to the Parliament of Norway for the

Christian Democratic Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

. Odd Bondevik attended the

MF Norwegian School of Theology MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society ( no, MF vitenskapelig høyskole for teologi, religion og samfunn), formerly the Free Faculty of Theology ( no, Det teologiske menighetsfakultet) and MF Norwegian School of Theology, is an accr ...

and graduated in 1965 with a Cand.theol. degree. From 1969–1978, he worked as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

to Japan for the

Norwegian Missionary Society The Norwegian Missionary Society or the Norwegian Mission Society ( no, Det Norske Misjonsselskap, NMS) is the first and oldest missionary organization in Norway. It was started by a group of approximately 180 Stavanger residents in August 1842, ...

. From 1978 he worked at the home office of the Norwegian Missionary Society as a secretary for mission. In 1980 he became the General Secretary of the Society, a position a held until he was consecrated bishop in 1991. Bondevik was consecrated as Bishop on 17 November 1991. He was elected Preses (President) of the Bishop's Conference for the Church of Norway from 1998 until 2002. In August 2007, he announced his intention to retire and he had his last church service on 10 February 2008 at Molde Cathedral. In retirement, he put together a new

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

translation of the Old Testament. He was noted for proposing that the word " hell" be edited out of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

. He was generally considered to hold conservative theological views.

Personal life

Bondevik's father was the politician and member of parliament Kjell Bondevik and he is a cousin of

Kjell Magne Bondevik Kjell Magne Bondevik (; born 3 September 1947) is a Norwegian Lutheran minister and politician. As leader of the Christian Democratic Party, he served as the 33rd prime minister of Norway from 1997 to 2000, and from 2001 to 2005, making him, af ...

, the former

Prime Minister of Norway The prime minister of Norway ( no, statsminister, which directly translates to "minister of state") is the head of government and chief executive of Norway. The prime minister and Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior government department ...

. He got married in 2012 to Wenche Yamamoto.Brita Skogly Kraglund
Biskop Bondevik (71) har giftet seg
Vårt Land, 22 September 2012 He died on 6 September 2014.

References

1941 births 2014 deaths Bishops of Møre MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society alumni 20th-century Lutheran bishops 21st-century Lutheran bishops Primates of the Church of Norway People from Sauda {{bishop-stub