Rev. Sunniva Gylver’s Story
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN A 2013 ISSUE OF LIFETOGETHER
Rev. Sunniva Gylver studied at Wartburg Seminary in 1994-1995 as an exchange student from the seminary in Norway, Det teologisk Menighetsfakultet. The experience was transformational and shaped many facets of her 18 year ministry in Oslo, Norway. Now, she is working towards her PhD exploring the relationship between social capital and parish development in an inner city context.
Comfort the troubled and trouble the comfortable. She said, “This was really memorable for me because Jesus did both, he comforted people but he also challenged them, in a good way.” This slogan is something Gylver learned during her time at Wartburg. “At Wartburg I heard a pastoral perspective, ‘you can’t only love God, you have to love the people and society as well.’ I understood then that the church could be a powerful prophetical voice that speaks up to the injustices of the world and ‘troubles the comfortable’ by challenging people.”