Finn Lynge (22 April 1933 – 4 April 2014) was a Greenlandic politician, Indigenous rights activist, former

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest and civil servant who from 1979 until 1984 was the sole

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

for

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

Early life and career

Lynge was born in 1933 and grew up in Nuuk. As a teenager he moved to Denmark with his parents and graduated from secondary school in 1951. Lynge studied Danish and French at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

before serving in the military. He trained to be a

priest before serving in

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, United States, from 1963 to 1964. He later served as a priest in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

and in

. He was the first native Greenlander Catholic priest since the Protestant Reformation. He subsequently resigned as a priest to marry. Following that Lynge spent several years working for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and for the Greenlandic Government.

Indigenous activism and political career

Lynge served as a director for the Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa. Lynge also authored several books in Greenlandic, Danish and English. From 1992 to 1995 he was a member of the Board of the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. From 1979 until 1984, he was the sole

for

. Lynge campaigned for Greenland's withdrawal and his seat was abolished when Greenland withdrew from the European Communities. He was opposed to Greenlandic membership of the European Communities and campaigned strongly for withdrawal.

Parliamentary service

*Member, Committee on Agriculture (1979–81, 1982–84) *Member, Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection (1981–82) *Member, Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights (1984)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynge, Finn 1933 births 2014 deaths Greenlandic expatriates Danish expatriates in the United States Greenlandic Roman Catholic priests Greenlandic writers Siumut MEPs MEPs for Denmark 1979–1984 MEPs for Denmark 1984–1989 People from Nuuk Expatriate writers in the United States