The order of Service 1895-1898

What do we know about the order of Service in The Church of Brotherhood in 1895-1898? Not very much really but by putting together pieces of information found in different historical sources, we know the order of Service included singing hymns, prayer and sermon. The Church of Brotherhood celebrated on Sundays and the feast days were Christmas Day, Easter Sunday, and Whitsunday. One source also adds harvest festival, flower festival, and children’s festival. Baptism of children or adults took place when needed.

It is not known if the Communion was celebrated on particular days or not but the order of the Communion was briefly as follows:

Introduction talk by the pastor
Readings from 1 Co. 11, 23-25.
Readings from a text that seems to be a standard formula including the words:
Eat this in remembrance of Jesus
Drink this in remembrance of Jesus

Both the baptism and the Communion were simply regarded as symbolical rituals. The same thing is said about confirmation (which the pastor was obliged to carry out only if requested).

Facismile of Janson's hymn book "Salmer og Sange" (hymns and songs) from 1901. (Click on the photo to enlarge.)

Two of Janson's hymns. No. 18 "Bibelen" (The Bible. First line goes "You dear, dear Bible Book."). No. 19 "Jesu ord" (The words of Jesus. First line goes "The words of Jesus I love most of all.") Click on the photo to enlarge and read the text in Norwegian.

[Information provided by Mr. Court Freibuch.]

Norwegian Unitarian Pastors 1895-1930

Between 1895-1930 there was only one registered Unitarian church in Norway. Its first name was The Church of Brotherhood then it added Unitarian Society to its name. It is not possible to say exactly when this happened but from 1905 the church was in periodicals almost only referred to as Unitarian Society, even if the church records still said The Church of Brotherhood (Unitarian Society).

Looking at handwriting in the church records and comparing this with other handwritten sources it is possible to make the following list of Unitarian pastors:

Kristofer Janson 1895-1898 (he founded The church of Brotherhood in 1895 and introduced the church records in 1897)

Otto Hersem (in the Unitarian parish magazine from 1906 he is said to be

the former pastor

and he was probably an interim pastor, a qualified guess would be between 1898 and 1904.)

Hermand Haugerud 1904-1930.

[Information contributed by Mr. Court Freibuch.]