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Anglican

Anglicans form the family of Christians closely related to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Whilst tracing their inheritance back to Christ and the earliest Christians and to the ancient Roman Catholic church, the sixteenth century Reformation was a crucial moment for Anglicanism.

Bishop

‘Bishop’ comes from the Greek word for ‘overseer’. So a bishop is a senior Christian minister authorised to have oversight for God’s people. As well as duties given to deacons and priests, bishops confirm and ordain.

Episcopal

‘Episcopal’ refers to the role or ministry of a bishop. So an episcopal church is one in which oversight is entrusted to a bishop. Like many others, the Church in Wales is an episcopal church.

Holy Communion

At Holy Communion blessed bread and wine is shared, by which we receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The congregation gives thanks for Jesus’ life, his death and resurrection and his continuing presence. See also Eucharist.

Theological

‘Theology’ means literally ‘words about God’. Christian theology involves our trying to understand and explain what God has revealed about himself through Scripture. This work is aided by the writings of past and present theologians and human reason.

Home News Special service in Cardiff sees the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Faroe Islands join the Porvoo Communion

Special service in Cardiff sees the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Faroe Islands join the Porvoo Communion

Provincial news Posted: 8 October 2025

Today, members of the Porvoo Communion gather at St David’s Church, Cardiff, to celebrate the inclusion of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Faroe Islands into the communion. This formal alignment is being marked during the Porvoo Theological Conference, taking place from 7–9 October 2025, with the theme: “The 1700th Anniversary of the Nicene Creed (Council of Nicaea, 325)”.

The Porvoo Communion was first established in 1992 at Porvoo Cathedral, Finland, where Anglican and Lutheran churches came together to sign the declaration and share communion. The name Porvoo Communion not only reflects significant day, but also represents a commitment to unity, fellowship, and reconciliation across the wider church.

The Porvoo Communion is a communion of 15 Anglican and Evangelical Lutheran churches in Europe. The communion was established in 1992 by a theological agreement entitled the Porvoo Common Statement. This contains the Porvoo Declaration (reproduced in the appendix) which enables full communion between and among these churches. In practice, this means that members of the Faroese church are recognised as full members when visiting any other Porvoo church, for example, a member of the Church in Wales could attend a service or receive Holy Communion in Iceland, Norway, or Sweden, and be fully received as part of that congregation, and vice versa. The Church in Wales signed the Porvoo Declaration in 1995, following the resolution of the Governing Body on 28 September 1995 and established in the Welsh constitution by the Porvoo Declaration Canon 1995.

Since that year, the Church in Wales has played its full part in the life of the Porvoo Communion, including hosting the meeting of the Porvoo primates and presiding bishops in Llandaff in October 2011.

Currently the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Faroe Islands has 41,729 members, representing 77% of the Faroese population (2023). It has one bishop, one cathedral dean, 27 pastors, 61 churches and chapels and 16 parishes. The bishop (Biskupur) of the Faroe Islands is the Right Reverend Jógvan Fríðriksson.

Until now, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Faroe Islands has not been able to join the Porvoo Communion due to its historical oversight under the Kingdom of Denmark. In 2007, the church gained full independence and has since strengthened its structures, ministries, episcopal leadership, and traditions.

Now, fulfilling a long-held aspiration, the Faroese church is formally joining the Porvoo Communion, following the ratified decision at the Church in Wales Governing Body in September.

Ovi Brim, Dean of Evangelical and Lutheran Church of Faroe Islands, says "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”.

Member churches of the Porvoo Communion include the Church in Wales, the Church of England, the Scottish Episcopal Church, and the Church of Ireland, all who have welcomed the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Faroe Islands into the communion marking a significant step in unifying the churches in Europe, some might say now more than ever.