Odd Bondevik (20 June 1941 – 6 September 2014) was a Norwegian theologian who was the

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the

Diocese of Møre The Diocese of Møre () is a diocese in the Church of Norway which geographically consists of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. Its bishop is seated at the Molde Cathedral which is located in the county administrative center of Molde. , the Bisho ...

in the

Church of Norway The Church of Norway (, , , ) is an Lutheranism, evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. Christianity became the state religion of Norway around 1020, and was established a ...

from 17 November 1991 until retirement in 2008. He also served as

Preses Les Preses () is a village and municipality in the province of Girona and autonomous community of Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of ...

of the Bishop's Conference of the Church of Norway from 1998 until 2002.Odd Bondevik
Store Norske Leksikon, retrieved 6 April 2013

Career

Bondevik was born in

Sauda Sauda ''()'' is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Sauda, where most of the population lives. Other villages in the municipality include Saudasjøen and Amdal. Despite being ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

on 20 June 1941. His family moved to

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

when he was 8 years old since his father, Kjell Bondevik had been elected to the

Parliament of Norway The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional represe ...

for the

Christian Democratic Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

. Odd Bondevik attended the

MF Norwegian School of Theology MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society (MF for short) is a Norwegian private specialized university. MF focuses on education, research and dissemination of their fields of expertise. The specialized university is located at Majorstu ...

and graduated in 1965 with a

Cand.theol. Candidate ( or ) is the name of various academic degrees, which are today mainly awarded in Scandinavia. The degree title was phased out in much of Europe through the 1999 Bologna Process, which has re-formatted academic degrees in Europe. The de ...

degree. From 1969–1978, he worked as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

for the

Norwegian Missionary Society The Norwegian Missionary Society or the Norwegian Mission Society (, NMS) is the first and oldest missionary organization in Norway. It was started by a group of approximately 180 Stavanger residents in August 1842, to spread Christianity to oth ...

. From 1978 he worked at the home office of the Norwegian Missionary Society as a secretary for mission. In 1980 he became the General Secretary of the Society, a position a held until he was consecrated bishop in 1991. Bondevik was

consecrate Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects ( ...

d as Bishop on 17 November 1991. He was elected

(President) of the Bishop's Conference for the Church of Norway from 1998 until 2002. In August 2007, he announced his intention to retire and he had his last church service on 10 February 2008 at Molde Cathedral. In retirement, he put together a new Norwegian translation of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

. He was noted for proposing that the word "

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

" be edited out of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

. He was generally considered to hold conservative theological views.

Personal life

Bondevik's father was the politician and member of parliament Kjell Bondevik and he is a cousin of

Kjell Magne Bondevik Kjell Magne Bondevik (; born 3 September 1947) is a Norway, Norwegian Lutheranism, Lutheran Religious minister, minister and Politics of Norway, politician. As leader of the Christian Democratic Party (Norway), Christian Democratic Party, he ser ...

, the former

Prime Minister of Norway The prime minister of Norway (, which directly translates to "minister of state") is the head of government and chief executive of Norway. The prime minister and Cabinet of Norway, Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior government departme ...

. He got married in 2012 to Wenche Yamamoto.Brita Skogly Kraglund
Biskop Bondevik (71) har giftet seg
Vårt Land, 22 September 2012 He died on 6 September 2014.

References

1941 births 2014 deaths Bishops of Møre MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society alumni 20th-century Lutheran bishops 21st-century Lutheran bishops Primates of the Church of Norway People from Sauda {{Norway-Lutheran-bishop-stub