The evangelist in the meeting house – Christian voices in Norway

December 4 2012

The Fritt Ord Foundation invites the public to a film screening and talk at Uranienborgveien 2, Oslo, on Monday, 10 December 2012, from 5 to 7 p.m., featuring Elisabeth Kleppe, film director with Aldeles, Bergen, Espen Ottosen, preacher, chief information officer for the Norwegian Lutheran Mission and columnist in the newspaper Aftenposten, and Frank Rossavik, author and commentator in the newspaper Bergens Tidende. Moderator: Turid Rogne, film producer with Aldeles, Bergen.

Finn Kleppe has devoted his life to what he saw as his calling: to spread the word of Christ throughout the kingdom of Norway. As a preacher with the Free Evangelical Meetings, Norway, he travelled all over the country as an evangelist, leaving his wife and three children behind in Bergen. In the film “The Evangelist”, Director Elisabeth Kleppe turns the camera on her father and the bethel meeting houses he calls home.

Since Hans Nielsen Hauge’s layman’s revival in the 1800s, bethel meeting house culture has had a strong position in Norway and it has left lasting impressions. However, this aspect of our religious legacy is on the decline. In this personal documentary film, the director accompanies her father on his last tour. What is the status of meeting house culture today? What role do Christian voices play in Norway’s public space? What do the secular media do to communicate what is actually taking place in Christian circles?

Co-organiser: Aldeles

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