The Diocese of Møre () is a

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

in the

Church of Norway The Church of Norway (, , , ) is an Lutheranism, evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. Christianity became the state religion of Norway around 1020, and was established a ...

which geographically consists of

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

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Its

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

is seated at the Molde Cathedral which is located in the county administrative center of

Molde Molde () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town and the seat of Molde Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Pen ...

. , the Bishop of Møre is Ingeborg Midttømme. The diocese was established on 18 September 1983, when the district of

Sunnmøre Sunnmøre (, ) is the southernmost traditional district of the western Norwegian county of Møre og Romsdal. Its main city is Ålesund. The region comprises the municipalities () of Fjord, Giske, Hareid, Herøy, Sande, Haram, Stranda Mu ...

was removed from the

Diocese of Bjørgvin The Diocese of Bjørgvin () is one of the 11 dioceses that make up the Church of Norway. It includes all of the churches located in the county of Vestland in Western Norway, and those outside of Norway in the Seamen's Church. The cathedral cit ...

to the south, and the

Romsdal Romsdal is a Districts of Norway, traditional district in the Norwegian county Møre og Romsdal, located between Nordmøre and Sunnmøre. The district of Romsdal traditional comprises the areas that are part of Aukra Municipality, Molde Municipal ...

and

Nordmøre Nordmøre () is a Districts of Norway, traditional district in the Norway, Norwegian county of Møre og Romsdal. The area comprises the northern third of the county including the List of municipalities of Norway, municipalities of Kristiansund Mu ...

districts were removed from the

Diocese of Nidaros Nidaros is a diocese in the Lutheran Church of Norway. It covers Trøndelag county in Central Norway and its cathedral city is Trondheim, which houses the well-known Nidaros Cathedral. Since 10 September 2017, the Bishop of Nidaros is Herborg ...

to the north. The three districts (which correspond to Møre og Romsdal county) were used to form the new diocese.

Structure

The Diocese of Møre is divided into six

deaneries A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the 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 residence of a ...

(). Each one corresponds to several municipalities in the diocese. Each municipality is further divided into one or more

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es which each contain one or more congregations. See each municipality below for lists of churches and parishes within them.

Bishops

The following people have led the diocese as

since the founding of the diocese: * Since 2008: Ingeborg Midttømme * 1991–2008: Odd Bondevik * 1983–1991: Ole Nordhaug

Name

The name of the diocese (''Møre'') is the result of a compromise between county's three districts.

, with almost half of the population, would accept that the bishop be located in the geographical center of the diocese—

—if that region's name (Romsdal) be excluded from the name of the diocese. The name of the corresponding county was ''Møre fylke'' during the period from 1919–1935, and ''Romsdal amt'' from 1660–1919. However, the name is old (

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

: ''Mœrr''), and it is probably derived from the word ''marr'' which means "

ocean The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian, Southern Ocean ...

" or "sea". The meaning is then "coastal district". (A coastal district in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

has the same name:

Möre Möre is one of the original small lands of Småland, a historical province (''landskap'') in southern Sweden. It corresponds to the south-eastern part of modern Kalmar County. Möre was divided into two hundreds: Möre Northern Hundred and ...

.) The ambiguous designation ''møring''—"person from Møre"—is used strictly about people from Nordmøre (and less frequently for people from Sunnmøre), excluding the people from Romsdal (while, consequently, ''romsdaling''—"person from Romsdal"— is used about the latter).

References

External links

Official website of the diocese
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diocese Of More Møre og Romsdal More Christian organizations established in 1983 Organisations based in Molde 1983 establishments in Norway