Olav Fykse Tveit
Olav Fykse Tveit (born 24 November 1960) is a Norwegian Lutheran theologian and bishop, and the current Preses of the Bishops' Conference of the Church of Norway. He was elected to the post of general secretary of the World Council of Churches on 27 August 2009. He entered office on 1 January 2010, for a proposed term of five years, and was re-elected to a second term in July 2014. He resigned from the post in March 2020, having been elected Preses of the Bishops' Conference of the Church of Norway. Biography. Olav Fykse Tveit is  general secretary of the World Council of Churches as from 1 January 2010, replacing the Rev. Samuel Kobia. He is an ordained priest (and soon to be consecrated a bishop) in the Church of Norway and has also served as a parish priest in Haram, Møre Diocese, 1988–91 and as an army chaplain during his compulsory year of national service in 1987–88. He was secretary for the Church of Norway Doctrinal Commission, 1999–2000, and Church-State Relations, 2001–02. From 2002 to 2009, Tveit was the general secretary of the Church of Norway Council on Ecumenical and International Relations. He served  as a member of the board of directors and executive committee of the Christian Council of Norway, moderator of the Church of Norway - Islamic Council of Norway contact group and the same for the Jewish Congregation contact group. He also was a member of the Inter-Faith Council of Norway and a member of the board of trustees of Norwegian Church Aid. Tveit was elected as the seventh general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in August 2009 during its Central Committee meeting and was re-elected to a second term in July 2014. Tveit is the youngest  general secretary to have been elected since Willem Visser 't Hooft, who had led the WCC while it was in process of formation and following its founding assembly in 1948. He will step down as General Secretary of the WCC on 31 March 2020. On 17 October 2019 it was announced that he had been nominated to become the next Preses - Presiding Bishop - of the Church of Norway, from 2020. His appointment was announced on 30 January 2020 and he is set to assume the role in April 2020. Education. Tveit holds a Master in Theology (Candidate Theologiea) from the  Norwegian School of Theology/Menighetsfakultetet (NST/MF), Oslo, and a doctorate in theology from the NST/MF, 2002. His doctorate is titled "Mutual Accountability as Ecumenical Attitude". Activities. Tveit is a member of the WCC Faith and Order Plenary Commission, co-chair of the WCC Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum core group, a member of the board of directors and executive committee of the Christian Council of Norway, moderator of the Church of Norway - Islamic Council of Norway contact group and also of the Jewish Congregation contact group. He is also a member of the Inter-Faith Council of Norway and  a member of the board of trustees of Norwegian Church Aid. As general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Tveit has led the fellowship of churches through such gatherings as the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (Kingston, Jamaica, 2011) and the 10th Assembly of the WCC (Busan, Republic of Korea, 2013). He has also been instrumental in leadership of international consultations on such topics as climate change, peacemaking and refugee resettlement. In 2012, Tveit received the Friends of the Armenians Award for his advocacy worldwide. In 2013, King Abdullah II of Jordan presented him with the Al-Hussein Decoration for  Distinguished Service in the field of inter-religious dialogue and cooperation in pursuit of peace among peoples. In 2015, Hanshin University in Seoul, Republic of Korea, awarded him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his vision of unity, justice and peace. Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has accepted an invitation from the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children to serve on the organization's board of directors. Tveit also serves as a co-president of Religions for Peace.