Norwegian couples with an invalid marriage are acknowledged anyways

For more than 30 years, the Methodist Church in Norway used a marriage liturgy that was not approved by the authorities. That could mean that the more than 800 couples who got married during this period were not actually married before the law.

Methodist marriages in Norway might be invalid because of “wrong liturgy”

12-09-2023

Now, Bufdir, who is responsible for approving marriage rituals, has found a solution. The Directorate assessed the factors that could make a marriage ritual illegal. It now concluded that minor changes, such as which hymns are sung in an approved marriage ritual, do not make the marriage itself invalid.

Instead, the decisive part of the liturgy is that it contains a part concerning the marriage that fulfils “the conditions specified in the Marriage Act”.

Concrete

This outcome will be sent tot he State Trustee, Vart Land reports. The Trustee must make a concrete assessment of what this means for the Methodist Church.

Emil Skartveit, the General Manager of the Methodist Church in Norway, is very relieved with the outcome, he says to Vart Land. “What Burdir writes is what we have claimed all along: We can change Bible verses and hymns, but we must stick closely to the original text in the marriage itself. We have been careful to do that.”