Church of Norway

Church of Norway
Coat of arms of the Church of Norway, a cross laid over two St. Olaf's axes. Based on the coat of arms of 16th-century archbishops of Nidaros.
Classification	Protestant
Orientation	Lutheranism
Polity	Episcopal
Associations	Lutheran World Federation, World Council of Churches, Conference of European Churches, Porvoo Communion
Region	Norway
Origin	1537
Separated from	Roman Catholic Church
Members	3,799,366 baptized members

The Church of Norway (Den norske kirke in Bokmål and Den norske kyrkja in Nynorsk), from 2017 called the People's Church (Folkekirken in Bokmål and Folkekyrkja in Nynorsk), is a Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity that serves as the "people's church" and the largest church in Norway.

The church was established after the Lutheran reformation in Denmark–Norway in 1536–1537 broke ties with the Holy See. The church professes the Lutheran Christian faith, with its foundation on the Bible, the Apostles', Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, Luther's Small Catechism and the Augsburg Confession. The church is a member of the Porvoo Communion with 12 other churches, among them the Anglican churches of Europe. It has also signed some other ecumenical texts, including the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification with the Roman Catholic Church.

Until 1969, the church's name for administrative purposes was simply the "State Church" or sometimes just "the Church", whereas the constitution described it as the "Evangelical-Lutheran Church". A constitutional amendment of May 21, 2012 designates the church as "Norway's people's church" (Norges Folkekirke), with a new provision that is almost a verbatim copy of the provision for the Danish state church (folkekirken) in the Constitution of Denmark. While the church remains state-funded and integrated in the state administration with a special constitutional role, it is largely self-governing in doctrinal matters and clergy appointments. On 27 May, 2016, Stortinget passed a new bill that establishes the Church of Norway as an independent legal entity rather than a branch of the civil service. The Church of Norway officially ceased to be the state church on January 1, 2017.