WTF is going on in the Church of Denmark? A survey of more than 3,000 Church employees (DK) conducted by DR (the Danish Broadcasting Corporation) revealed a virulently toxic working environment. More than one in three surveyed has experienced some form of bullying, harassment, or “psychological violence” in the past five years. The survey encompassed all levels of staff, including pastors, throughout the country. The results were supported by a large number of complaints received by the Danish Working Environment Authority.

Even pastors are being bullied. Photo: Signe Goldmann © Ritzau Scanpix)

Professor of Public Administration Kurt Klaudi Klausen of Southern Denmark University, who has studied the report, said he had never before seen an organizational culture with such widespread bullying and, echoing Marcellus’s description of Denmark in Hamlet, called the situation “sick or rotten.”

Laura Håkansson is a young pastor who was subjected to recurring insults, scolding, and other disparaging remarks (DK) by a particular member of her parish council on the island of Lolland beginning at her first meeting with the council. She eventually had to take an extended sick leave and undergo psychotherapy. “I became worn out in my humanity,” she said. “I was extremely tired all the time. I couldn’t take care of my children alone or drive my car.” Others on the parish council corroborated her story of mistreatment, but none intervened. She finally appealed to her bishop and was reassigned to substitute duties at neighboring parishes.

A state church for non-churchgoers

The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark (Folkekirken, literally “the People’s Church”) is a state-supported church that operates under the auspices of Parliament and the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs. Everyone who is baptized in the Church automatically becomes a member and pays a “church tax” as part of income tax, although one can always opt out. Some 73 percent of the population are members, but only around 3 percent attend church regularly. Local parishes are governed by the parish council, which is described as a democratic body whose members are volunteers elected by parish members.

Power-crazed volunteers

Klausen and other researchers attribute the Church’s problems to its management structure. Parish council members are amateurs with no special competence in the Church’s affairs or in management. Some 39 percent of employees, not counting pastors, complained of their parish councils’ incompetence. Associate Professor Laura Sløk proposes that the management be transferred to the Church’s dioceses led by the country’s ten bishops.

The right-wing parties in Parliament have called on Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen (DK) to explain what she intends to do to improve the situation for the Church’s 12,000 employees. “This is God’s own house, and it is here that compassion and charity should flourish,” said Birgitte Bergman, spokesperson for Church affairs of the Danish People’s Party. At Bergman’s prompting about such problems last December, Halsboe-Jørgensen implemented an advisory service for Church parishes, but according to Klaudi Klausen, it was an ineffective Band-Aid measure that did not address the root problem.

Wait for a politician’s “dialogue” or just bail out

Eight trade unions (DK) that represent the various professions of Church employees ranging from choir directors to gardeners are calling for action as well, with some also asking for management responsibility to be moved to the dioceses. One problem is that, in order to have a workplace environment representative who can address employee issues, a workplace must have at least ten employees, and many small parishes do not.

“It is of course really terrible that sometimes we need to tell members that the best advice I can give is that they flee before they break down,” says Karin Schmidt Andersen, chair of the Danish Organist and Cantor Society. A spokesperson for the National Association of Parish Councils rejects the idea that Church management will improve by moving responsibility away from the local workplace.

Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs Halsboe-Jørgensen maintains that she understands the gravity of the situation but will not say whether she favors changing the Church’s management structure. She says she does not believe in a quick political solution: “This is a problem that we must solve together.” She will meet with the representatives of the trade unions, the parish councils, and the bishops at the end of the month.