Satanic black metal or outdoor teaching? Priests instruct widely differently

Inside (https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland)

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Satanic black metal or outdoor learning? Priests teach widely differently

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No specific requirements are set for how priests conduct confirmation preparation.

There is a curriculum for confirmation preparation, but like in elementary school, it is up to the priests themselves to arrange the teaching and plan how they will carry it out in life. Archive. (Photo: © Tim Kildeborg Jensen, Ritzau Scanpix) 32 minutes ago

It is widely different how priests guide confirmands through Christianity, the Bible, and hymns, before they profess their faith in the church, as many teenagers do in these weeks.

While some priests focus on a form of outdoor learning, others have a more alternative approach to confirmation preparation.

In Stilling Church, for example, the priest plays satanic black metal when Grundtvig and Kingo's hymns are to be sung and understood.

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> There should be different approaches, because there are different children and young people.

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> Pernille Vigsø Bagge, chair, priests' association

In Næsbjerg and Øse Parishes near Varde, the priest has made crucifixes from scrap together with his confirmands and a artist. And in Esbjerg, the confirmands at the priest's Zions Church have had visits from a monk, where they were able to try lying in a coffin.

And as long as confirmands learn the essentials - such as the Lord's Prayer and hymns - Birgitte Stoklund trusts that the priests will do the right thing.

She is the rector for the Folkekirkens Knowledge and Education Center, which among other things re-educates priests in how they can grasp confirmation preparation.

- Of course, there may be some who go to extremes. But I think we have well-educated and skilled priests who think about how they will solve the problem and reflect on it.

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Free framework is necessary

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There is nothing wrong with priests taking the teaching in widely different directions. It is indeed the individual priest who is responsible for the preparation - and there are very few requirements for how they should do it.

And it should continue to be. That's what Pernille Vigsø Bagge, who is the chair of the Priests' Association, thinks.

- That's the way we best ensure that the most possible students benefit from the education we now give them. There should be different approaches, because there are different children and young people.

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Expert: Priests should speak the young people's language

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Not even Brian Arly Jacobsen, religious sociologist at the University of Copenhagen, thinks that there should or can be changes in the fact that priests have methodological freedom when it comes to teaching confirmands.

But priests can think outside the box, he says.

- It's clear that there are some students who get more out of one form of confirmation education than another form. But if you want to reach the young, you are forced to speak their language and use some of the tools that the young are accustomed to.

The Church of Denmark expects around 44,000 young people to be confirmed this year. Last year, it was about 64 percent of the young people in confirmation age, according to figures from the Church of Denmark. And that is the lowest percentage since the Church of Denmark began measuring it in 2005.

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