Danish priests will not shut up about fear and bullying in the Danish National Church – Vårt Land
– I will never break my duty of confidentiality, but that does not mean that I will keep quiet about what I witness in my and my colleagues’ workplaces, says priest Katrine Blinkenberg to Danish TV2 Lorry, which published first.
In a phrase, she tells about a tea culture in the Danish folk church. She has talked to every one of the 49 priests who have signed the phrase, and from them she has received the right stories about freezing, slander and bullying.
– They have experienced dysfunctional workplaces, and bullying, either against themselves or others. They have a beach with incompetent parish councils, deacons and bishops who have not responded properly or enough. They have a feeling of powerlessness, she tells TV2 Lorry.
To Vårt Land, Blinkenberg tells that the response she has received after she went out in the media has been overwhelming:
– For example. has been the contact of nearly 60 people. It is clergy colleagues, organists, church teenagers and who tell that they have experienced the same thing.
Like being in the war
Blinkenberg has been a priest for 12 years, and has also worked as a field priest. Tell her that there is a coincidence between the experiences of the war veterans she talks to and her colleagues’ story. She says she is shaken by the right-wing pastors she has worked with to tell about the symptoms of post-traumatic stress.
She herself has resigned a position as parish priest after a long period of sick leave as a consequence of difficult working environment.
– If you have a stomach ache and your hands tremble because you are mentally heavy, then you can not be responsible for a comforting person and stand up behind a coffin, she says.
[ Teologiprofessor: – Den norske kirke er ingen kirke ]
Structural problems
I July report TV2 Lorry that every fourth church in Copenhagen has had a problem with a mentally poor working environment. During an inspection visit to one of the churches in August 2020, the assessment to the Danish Labor Inspectorate was that there was a risk that the employees would have anxiety, heart problems and post-traumatic stress if no preventive efforts had been made.
Blinkenberg believes the structure of the Danish National Church is largely to blame. This structure is very similar to the structure that has been much discussed in Norway in recent years. The Danish priests are supervised directly in the Ministry of Church Affairs, as Norwegian priests were until they were transferred to the legal entity Den norske kirke (DNK) in 2017. The other employees in Danish church offices are supervised locally under the parish council.
According to Blinkenberg, the challenges lie in the fact that it is a voluntary and unprofessional parish council that indirectly decides over the employees in the churches.
– There are few who are motivated to sit on the parish council, but they come in from the street and rent a medium-sized business with 10-12 employees. It is a big and difficult task, if one does not have the right skills.
Blinkenberg adds that there are some places, such as where her husband is a priest, where the organization works well.
– But it is also, excuse the expression, many «shit cities».
The leadership of the Danish National Church, for example, has not responded to the criticism in the Danish press, and so far they have not responded to Vårt Land either. But the day after the appeal from the Danish priests became known and mentioned in the media, the Danish National Church announced on its website that on January 1 establishes a new, permanent work environment institution which will work for well-being and a good work environment in the folk church.
[ Utvalsleiar om den norske debatten om kyrkjeleg organisering: – Finn eit kompromiss ]