Hope Cathedral

Winter 2022

The Hope Cathedral received
the Plank Carrier Award this year!

“The Plank Carrier of Fredrikstad Award” known in Norwegian as “Plankebærerprisen” is a special prize that is given to a person or an organization that puts Fredrikstad on the map in a special way. Dag Solheim, one of the prizes’ jury members said in his speech "It is almost impossible to find a more positive measure than the Hope Cathedral". We are very proud of receiving this great award. We celebrated together with the real “plank bearers” - our volunteer team!

The School Workshops Fully Booked.

We love that the schools in the district appreciate coming for our school workshop! Apart from two Tuesdays in February, we are now fully booked until the summer! Several hundred new students will therefore have the opportunity to learn about sustainability and why it is important that we all work together for peace and our planet. We must not lose HOPE! Also the students get to help achieve the United Nations sustainability goal no.15, Life on land, by making bee houses, or “Bee Cathedrals” as we call them.

Hope Garden

We have entered into a lease agreement with Fredrikstad municipality for a suitable plot of land on Isegran and have received pre-project funds to start a new exciting project: an inclusion garden. The plan is to build raised beds and grow herbs, bee-friendly flowers and vegetables. The goal further is to also build an outdoor kitchen! Urban cultivation is popular and important and we want to contribute in our own way. (We have also applied to Viken County and the Sparebankstiftelsen DNB for support for this project). 

To develop the idea of ​​the garden, we have collaborated with Janne Solgård, who has extensive knowledge of such inclusion gardens. We already have many groups who want to continue working voluntarily at Hope Cathedral, so the idea of a “Hope Garden” has been very well received. We will work with various religious organizations and according to the UN sustainability goals, as we have done with the construction of the cathedral. Our method is diapraxia, which means that people from different cultures and religions and age groups will work together, and have the opportunity to make new friendships. This creates dialogue and is an important contribution to peace and joy.

Do you want to contribute as a volunteer in our garden? Send an email to tone@hopecathedral.no

New owners and new board members

In October 2021, Bishop Atle Sommerfeldt sold his shares in Hope Cathedral with the aim of getting a broader, more complex ownership to safeguard the cathedral's goals of cooperation and sustainability for environmental protection. The new owners are the Buddhist Association, Dialogforum Østfold, the Church's City Mission, Caritas Norway, Borg Diocesan Council and Fredrikstad Church Joint Council. We look forward to sailing on with you!

We have also a new board in the Hope Cathedral. The new board members are Bente Haukland Næss (Chairman of the Board), Unni Skaar (Deputy Chairman), Shoaib Sultan, Karin-Elin Berg, Katarina Pajchel, Stine Ferguson, Solveig Egeland and Svein Helge Rødahl. The board members have broad experience in sustainability work, research, business, organizational work and religious work.

You can read more about the board members here.

Håpets katedral med i FN-katalog

Hope Cathedral is a multi-religious environment and art project that is about building hope through collaboration. The cathedral, which is open to all, is a meeting place for people regardless of age, nationality or faith.

We have built a 120 m2 wooden barge which is the foundation of the cathedral, which floats on the water. The main construction was inspired by traditional Norwegian stave churches, while the 300 m2 large roof has been created as an innovation project of recycled plastic from the sea.

The Hope Cathedral works with both environmental, social and economic sustainability. We are pioneers in “diapraxia” (people working together from different religions and cultures for a common goal). We believe that not only talking, but actually doing something together is good for our health and our planet and it increases more awareness and understanding among us.