page_title: Olav Øygard
section_title: As bishop
hierarchical_section_title: Olav Øygard / Episcopal career / As bishop
caption_attribution_description: Norsk bokmål: Olav Øygard taler i Tromsø domkirke English: Bishop Olav Øygard giving a sermon in Tromsø cathedral
context_page_description: Olav Øygard is a Norwegian Lutheran prelate of the Church of Norway who serves as the Bishop of Nord-Hålogaland since 2014. Nord-Hålogaland covers Troms and Finnmark countries, and also Svalbard. Øygard is a self-described "middle of the Church" theologian.
context_section_description: Øygard's episcopal ordination took place on 9 November 2014 at the Tromsø Cathedral.
  Beginning on 1 January 2017, the state relieved itself of financial and other responsibilities for the Church of Norway. As a result, Øygard began overseeing the Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland's transition to fiscal independence. Speaking to the newspaper Harstad Tidende, Øgard said that although he was happy to see the achievement of separation of church and state, it was likely that the diocese would enter a period of financial difficulty, with the new responsibility of paying the salaries of 90 priests and 15 administrative employees. He said that as a result, the diocese would have to decrease the number of worship services and vacate about ten positions over the course of the year due to lack of funds.
caption: Bishop Øygard giving a sermon at the Tromsø Cathedral.
exif: {"Image Make": "Motorola", "Image Model": "Moto G (4)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "athene_f-user 7.0 NPJ25.93-14 16 release-keys", "Image DateTime": "2017:03:28 18:16:03", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "238", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSMapDatum": "WGS-84", "Image GPSInfo": "3564", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3696", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "21322", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/33", "EXIF FNumber": "2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "320", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:03:28 18:16:03", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:03:28 18:16:03", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "101/20", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "-1", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Average", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "117/25", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4608", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3534", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "69/25", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Soft"}