{Note: Bishop Thor Henrik With was consecrated Bishop in Northern Norway (Valgmenighetene i Nordnorge) in a Divine Service on Saturday, 24 March 2012, in Tromsø, Norway. LCMS Theological Educator to the Baltics, Rev. Dr. Charles Evanson attended Bishop With’s consecration. He provides the translation below with a plea for prayers as it appears Bishop With will be defrocked by the Church of Norway for holding to the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions. Pictured is Bishop With with Archbishop Obare from 24 March 2012.}

Dear friends!

Will you pray for me, and again tomorrow, Thursday, May 16?

I am summoned to meet the bishop of Tunsberg tomorrow at 10 am, because I have allowed myself to become bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Foundation in Norway. Apparently the bishop of Tunsberg will announce the decision that I will be deprived of priestly rights in the Norwegian church. As they say, I am to “lose robe and collar.”

Since the Church of Norway has deluded itself into thinking that God blesses gay relationships and made it a doctrine, to which bishops and priests are to gladly agree to in their dioceses and parishes, the loss of priestly rights is sad, but it is not catastrophic. It is hard to bear that church members are deceived in this way, and that brother priests whom I would lead in the good fight of faith now become opponents. Also in other serious matters the church which took me into the ministry when I was ordained on December 16, 1979 is suffering. It is in serious conflict with the only Word that can give life and eternal salvation.

Will you pray that I receive wisdom and love to carry forward concern and guidance before the Tunsberg bishop, and to testify clearly about that to which  God’s Word commits us?

What is most of all at stake is the faithfulness of bishops and priests to Scripture and the Lutheran Confession to which they pledged their commitment at ordination – and therewith their proper guidance and care for all God’s people, on the road to judgment and the resurrection of life.

I thank you very much, friends, that I can count on you!