Per Kørner (26 April 1936 – 27 September 2018) was a Norwegian priest and anti-abortion activist. Kørner was a missionary priest in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

from 1966 to 1978, and parish priest in

Strandebarm Strandebarm is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. The original municipality was large, spanning both sides of the central part of the Hardangerfjorden. It also included the island of Varaldsøy. Over time, the municipa ...

from 1981 to 1991. He broke with the state governance of 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 ...

in 1984 in solidarity with anti-abortion priest

Børre Knudsen Børre Arnold Knudsen (1937–2014) was a Norwegian Lutheran priest noted for his anti-abortion activism. Together with Ludvig Nessa, he staged protests at abortion clinics starting in the late 1980s, and he spent time in jail for refusing to pa ...

, and was defrocked by a court ruling in 1991. He then continued as priest in the independent Deanery of Strandebarm (also known as the "Church of Norway in Exile") along with Knudsen. He joined the political party

Abortion Opponents' List The Abortion Opponents' List () is a Norwegian political party led by priests Ludvig Nessa and Børre Knudsen, that was present in seven counties in the 2005 elections. In the 2009 elections, they only put up a list in one county, Østfold. Th ...

as deputy leader for the 2009 parliamentary election alongside

Ludvig Nessa Ludvig Nessa (born 11 December 1949) is a Norwegian priest who has been noted as an anti-abortion activist since the late 1980s. Nessa was defrocked from the Church of Norway in 1991, which led him to co-found the independent Deanery of Strandeb ...

and Ivar Kristianslund from the "exile church". He has later protested against abortion and homosexuality during Church of Norway church services, kneeling in front of the church altar in the middle of church services, including in the

Bergen Cathedral Bergen Cathedral () is a cathedral in the city of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. It is the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Bjørgvin as well as the seat of the "Bergen domkirke" parish and the seat of the Bergen domprosti (arch-deanery). It ...

, the

St John's Church, Bergen St. John's Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Bergen Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the Sydnes area of the city of Bergen. It is one of the five churches for the Bergen Cathedral parish which is pa ...

, and the

Tromsø Cathedral Tromsø Cathedral () is a cathedral of the Church of Norway located in the city of Tromsø in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The cathedral is the church for the ''Tromsø Domkirkens'' parish. It is the headquarters for the Troms ...

, when King

Harald V Harald V (, ; born 21 February 1937) has been King of Norway since 1991. A member of the House of Glücksburg, Harald was the third child and only son of King Olav V of Norway and Princess Märtha of Sweden. He was second in the line of succ ...

has been present for the investiture of new bishops. Kørner resigned from his church services in 2016 due to cancer, and died in 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kørner, Per 1936 births 2018 deaths 20th-century Norwegian Lutheran clergy 21st-century Norwegian Lutheran clergy Anti-same-sex-marriage activists Clergy removed from office Deaths from cancer in Norway Lutheran missionaries in South Africa Norwegian anti-abortion activists Norwegian expatriates in South Africa Norwegian Lutheran missionaries Norwegian priest-politicians