HERESY

Heresy is a word I automatically associate with ancient times; a unified Christian church, the Spanish Inquisition, burnings at the stake, that sort of thing. It's not a word you'd expect to hear in a 21st century episcopal election.

Yet that is one of the accusations being thrown in the election in Ribe diocese, which covers Southern Jutland and is the oldest in Denmark. In contrast to (say) the Catholic and Anglican churches, bishops in Denmark's egalitarian Lutheran church are elected by the members of the local parish councils, and there are three candidates to replace Elisabeth Dons Christensen (another contrast) when she retires on 1 June this year. One of the three has accused one of the others of heresy, on the grounds that he once wrote in a book that he doesn't believe in God as an almighty creator.

Episcopal elections tend to be quiet affairs here. However, Jutland is probably the part of the country where religious differences are most pronounced and theological disputes conducted most passionately. The Ribe election could end up as being quite interesting.

Walter Blotscher