Do Danes believe.. ?

Hello Everyone!!

My favourite spot in Winter:)

How are you today? If you ask me, I can tell you that my mood is much better, since the weather today is so good! When I went out from the school today, the sun was shining onto my face and my mouth just moved to a great smile. You can see many people outside and the town is reborn after last weeks' grey skies.

Last sunday I decided to go to the .. church. Actually it was polish mass and I found out about that, on the website for polish people in Denmark. By the way. I am here 3 years and I discovered this kind of polish community thing 2 weeks ago. Clever.

Anyway, it was very strange for me to hear polish language so naturally in Denmark. I was quite amazed of amount of people who share the same beliefs and are living abroad, just as you. You can all meet them in at least, one place - church.

But here comes the question. Do you know anything about danish religion? It is propably good to know something  when you come to the new country, where YOU need to respect different culture.

Of course there are different individuals with different beliefs, but as written in a Danish Constitution, Paragraph 4, official religion of Denmark is Evangelican Lutheran. The curiosity - is that the queen of Denmark (Post about Royal Family soon!:) ) has to belong to Lutheran church, but one-third of the government ministers are not members of the church, simply called Folkekirken.

Temple of Aalborg – Church of St. Madonna 

But. What excatly are the Evangelical Lutheran doctrines and practices? Lutheranism was founded by German Priest Martin Luther in 16th century. ( More info here ). As Christians, the Lutheran believe in three-in-one God, work of Jesus Christ who became a human being to suffer and die for the sins of the world. Among the central beliefs in Lutheranism involve good works, grace and faith as a means of salvation.

As an interesting fact for me that I would love to share with you is that 5% of Danes attend church services on a weekly basis, 80% are the offical tax-paying members for the upkeep of the state church. In 2011, this amounted to 5.9 billion kroner. However in practice all taxpayers in Denmark - including no-members as well - pay for the state church, because it also receives a state subsidy equal to approximately 130 kroner (~17euro) per year for every single taxpayer (www.cphpost.dk)

As you can see, there are not so many "practicing" Lutherans and over the last few years the membership rate of the church has dropped, so there are some more frequant discussions to seperate church from its state (As Sweden did in 2000). And just to give you some comparison - there are 97% catholics in Poland and as international statistics say - 55% attending to church - but believe me - there is more, statistics just haven't lived in Poland.

As a second religious community we can highlight muslims who represent 2% of the population (this is around 100,000 believers) and here is quote of Queen Margrethe about Islam challenge in Denmark : 

"We have let this issue float around for too long, because we are tolerant and rather lazy," 

You can read the whole article here :)

So. I shared with some information about religion in Denmark and in Poland, but now I am waiting for your statistics! I am very interested how it is in your countries guys and what do you think of Lutheranism in Denmark? Don't hestitate to write comment or email :)

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Have a great weekend because I am gonna have one!:) 

Aleksandra