Kirkjuskipan fyrir 21. öld

Abstract

In this article, and the two that will follow it, I discuss the structure of the Icelandic National Church in the 21st century, the comprehensive regulatory framework that provides the structure and management of the Church. In this first article I focus on the general organization of the National Church. At first I talk about the Church Order (how to create stability of the work in the church and generate rules of how to change the work) and its key dimensions, including its internal and external dimension. Then I discuss the autonomy of the Church and other religious communities which is essential for the Church Order in the 21st century.
The focus will be on the assumption that the internal Church Order, the rules about management and practices, could be shaped by the fundamental fact that by the Constitution of Iceland the Church should be an Evangelical Lutheran Church but in other matters, that do not relate to its legal status, the Church has had considerable freedom to govern itself. Such independence is also considered an important factor in corporative religious freedom which has to be granted to churches and other religious organizations in modern secular democratic societies. It is regarded that the law of ECHR (9. article 2. paragraph) provides an objective way in how a sovereign state and an independent religious organizations can be reconciled.