Osmarka Chapel ( no, Osmarka kapell) is a chapel 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 ...

Gjemnes Municipality Gjemnes is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway on the Romsdal peninsula. It is part of the Nordmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Batnfjordsøra, which lies along the Batnfjorden and it is a former steamship ...

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is the ...

county, Norway. It is located in the village of

Osmarka Heggem (or Osmarka) is a village in Gjemnes Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village is located about south of the village of Torvikbukt and about west of the village of Angvik. The Osmarka Chapel is located here. The vill ...

. It is an annex chapel for the Øre parish which is part of the

Indre Nordmøre 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 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 ...

. The white, wooden church was built in a

long church Church building in Norway began when Christianity was established there around the year 1000. The first buildings may have been post churches erected in the 10th or 11th century, but the evidence is inconclusive. For instance under Urnes Stave C ...

design in 1909. The church seats about 110 people.

History

The Osmarka Inner Mission Association was formed in 1904 to fund and build a chapel in the Osmarka area. On 18 July 1909, their house of prayer was

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

. The small building was funded and constructed by the local villagers. In 1916, the association was granted permission to build a graveyard next to the prayer house. The parish priest was required to go to the prayer house twice a year to bury the dead and hold funerals. In 1939, the government gave permission for the priest to have four

worship service A church service (or a service of worship) is a formalized period of Christian communal worship Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. It may involve one or more of activities such as veneration, adorat ...

s each year at the small prayer house, and later this was raised to six per year. In 1942, the prayer house received an altar and

baptismal font A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. Aspersion and affusion fonts The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using a non-immersive method, such as aspersion (sprinkling) or affusion (pouring). ...

. An

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...

was added in 1943 when the prayer house was upgraded to the status of annex chapel. During the 1960s, the building was renovated extensively. In 1978, the Osmarka Inner Mission Association disbanded and gave the building and graveyard to the municipality to take care of. In 1983, the building was enlarged to add bathroom facilities. From 2002-2005, the exterior of the building was renovated, returning it to its original 1909 appearance.

References

{{use dmy dates, date=July 2021 Gjemnes Churches in Møre og Romsdal Long churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 20th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1909 1909 establishments in Norway

History

See also

References