Tor Berger Jørgensen (born 27 December 1945) is a Norwegian

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 ...

who until 2015 was Bishop of the

Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland Sør-Hålogaland is a diocese in the Church of Norway. The Diocese covers the Lutheran Church of Norway churches located within Nordland county in Norway. The diocese is headquartered in the Bodø (town), town of Bodø at Bodø Cathedral, the sea ...

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 ...

. Appointed in 2019, he now serves as the Bishop of the

Lutheran Church in Great Britain The Lutheran Church in Great Britain (LCiGB) is a small Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. The LCiGB is a member church of the Lutheran World Federation and of The Lutheran Council of Great Britain, the umbrella organisation for ...

and resides in London. Jørgensen was appointed the bishop of Sør-Hålogaland on 17 November 2006 and took over those duties from Øystein Ingar Larsen on 28 January 2007. Jørgensen had previously been the dean of Bodø Cathedral since 2000 and had for various periods been deputy for the bishop. Jørgensen received the

cand.theol. Candidate ( or ) is the name of various academic degrees, which are today mainly awarded in Scandinavia. The degree title was phased out in much of Europe through the 1999 Bologna Process, which has re-formatted academic degrees in Europe. The de ...

degree (equivalent to a combined

Bachelor of Divinity In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity or Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD, DB, or BDiv; ) is an academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology or, rarely, religious studies. ...

and

Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and ...

) from the Misjonshøgskolen/

MF Norwegian School of Theology MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society (MF for short) is a Norwegian private specialized university. MF focuses on education, research and dissemination of their fields of expertise. The specialized university is located at Majorstu ...

in 1972. Jørgensen worked for 15 years as a missionary priest in Japan for the

Norwegian Missionary Society The Norwegian Missionary Society or the Norwegian Mission Society (, NMS) is the first and oldest missionary organization in Norway. It was started by a group of approximately 180 Stavanger residents in August 1842, to spread Christianity to oth ...

. He then served as its general secretary from 1991 to 1999. Jørgensen was a candidate for bishop of the

Diocese of Oslo The Diocese of Oslo is the Church of Norway's Diocese, bishopric for the municipalities of Oslo, Asker and Bærum. It is one of Norway's five traditional bishoprics and was founded around the year 1070. History Oslo was established as a diocese ...

in 2005, but Ole Christian Kvarme was elected.

Beliefs

In 2000, Jørgensen supported the full inclusion of

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

persons in the Church of Norway. He is considered to be one of the liberal bishops in the church's General Synod. A week before he became bishop, he gave an interview to a newspaper stating that he supported a ritual in church for same-sex couples to take part in a

Civil union A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, primarily created to provide legal recognition for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage, with ch ...

. In 2009, Jørgensen

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

a female priest that was unmarried and living with the father of her child. The issue of

cohabitation Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a Romance (love), romantic or Sexual intercourse, sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. ...

of unmarried priests is a controversial topic in the Church of Norway. Some called for his resignation.

References

External links

Lutheran Church in Great Britain

Lutheran Council of Great Britain

Den Norske Kirke

Church of Norway

Porvoo Communion of Churches
1945 births Living people Clergy from Oslo Bishops of Sør-Hålogaland 21st-century Lutheran bishops MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society alumni {{Norway-Lutheran-bishop-stub