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| tirsdag 09. feb. 2010 |  |
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Mission in Norway and Abroad A characteristic feature of the Church of Norway today is that it incorporates a variety of autonomous organisations and institutions. Rooted as they are in the 19th-century Evangelical revival of the Pietist heritage, most of them have no formal links with Church leadership on any level. The clergy working in these organisations and institutions are ordained in the Church of Norway. The organisations have a large number of local branches based on the 2,700 prayer houses, which are unpretentious halls used for revival meetings. In most places the members of these organisations regard their activities as part of the wider parish work. In some places prayer house meetings take place at the same time as Sunday service, including celebration of the Eucharist without ordained clergy. The entire foreign missionary effort of the Church of Norway and a considerable amount of domestic evangelical work are carried out by these organisations. Among them are the Norwegian Missionary Society, the Norwegian Lutheran Home Mission Society, the Norwegian YMCA/YWCA, the Norwegian Lutheran Mission, the Norwegian Santal Mission and the Norwegian Church Ministry to Israel. The organisations support around 800 missionaries and development cooperation personnel working in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Most of them now work for independent national churches that were founded by the foreign mission. A number of mission development programmes receive Norwegian state support. The Norwegian Mission to Seamen - Norwegian Church Abroad builds and runs churches for Norwegians abroad, in major ports and other cities. This organisation, in 1989 the first of its kind to establish formal links with the Church of Norway General Synod, receives state support for the salaries of its clergy. Norwegian Church Aid, founded in response to Europe's needs after the Second World War, is now the country's largest non-governmental development agency. It operates mainly in developing countries, supporting projects in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Major international partners are national church councils, the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation. Norwegian Church Aid also runs a wide information operation at home, to increase knowledge of developing countries and raise support for a more just and sustainable international order. Initially a Church of Norway organisation, Church Aid is now ecumenical. The Norwegian Bible Society was founded within the Church of Norway in 1816 and has been an ecumenical organisation since 1984. It is the central institution for Bible translation, production and distribution in Norway. It promotes Bible reading at home and raises funds for Bible work abroad. The society's most recent Norwegian translations of the Bible were published in 1978, and were revised in 1985. The society is currently involved in translating the Bible into various Sami languages, spoken by Norway's ancient ethnic minority. Annually 100,000 - 150,000 Bibles are sold and distributed in Norway. The Norwegian Bible Society cooperates closely with the United Bible Societies and with national sister societies in many countries. The society has spearheaded Bible work in Madagascar, Israel and in Latin American countries, and in Eastern Europe in cooperation with national churches. Other publishing houses also publish Bible translations into Norwegian. 
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