REPRESENTATIVES of the Porvoo Communion celebrated the inclusion of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Faroe Islands, at a service in St David’s, Cardiff, last Wednesday, when the Faroe Islanders signed the Porvoo Declaration.

The Church was part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark until 2007, when it gained autonomy and the right to cultivate its own liturgical and theological traditions and to choose its own bishops.

The Faroe Islands Church has 41,729 members, 77 per cent of the Faroese population, a Church in Wales press release says. The Islands’ Church has one bishop, one cathedral dean, 27 pastors, 61 churches and chapels, and 16 parishes. The Bishop (Biskupur) of the Faroe Islands is the Rt Revd Jógvan Fríðriksson.

The Porvoo Communion was created in 1992 with the signing of the Porvoo Common Statement, which includes the Porvoo Declaration, and established full communion between certain Anglican and Evangelical Lutheran Churches, including the Church in Wales, the Church of England, the Scottish Episcopal Church, and the Church of Ireland.

Dean Ovi Brim of the Faroe Islands said: “I think it’s a declaration of great importance. It’s recognition of our work in ministry. It is very significant, as we have now become members of a great body, the body of Christ, and this service is a symbol of that today”.

The service was the opening eucharist of this year’s Porvoo Theological Conference, on the theme “Theological Orthodoxy and the Ecumenical Journey: Learning from the Council of Nicaea”. Professor Catrin Haf Williams and the former Archbishop Lord Williams delivered the two keynote addresses.

The Welsh Bench of Bishops hosted an ecumenical reception, including a celebration of Welsh culture, and conference participants visited places of interest in Cardiff, including the Senedd, where they saw a copy of Bishop Morgan’s 1588 Welsh Bible. They also attended ecumenical vespers in the Roman Catholic Cathedral.