“Peace of the heart and mind and peace of society are intrinsically linked. Peace and justice are inseparable.”
-GUNNAR STÅLSETT

A former bishop of Oslo in the Church of Norway, Gunnar Stålsett is a global advocate for international development and for engaging religious communities on social justice and solidarity issues. To that end, Bishop Stålsett currently serves as the Moderator of the European Council of Religious Leaders, which he helped establish, and is an International President of the World Council of Religions for Peace.

Bishop Stålsett was born in Nordkapp, Norway in 1935. He is a graduate of the MF Norwegian School of Theology in Oslo, and was awarded his Master’s of Theology in 1961. Following the completion of his studies, Bishop Stålsett worked as a minister and taught at the University of Oslo. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Bishop Stålsett led an active political career. From 1972 to 1973, he worked as state secretary in the Ministry of Church Affairs and Education, and later served as a representative to the Norwegian Parliament from Oslo. He also chaired Norway’s Centre Party and led the Church of Norway Council on Foreign Relations as its General Secretary.

Drawing on both his political and interreligious experience and influence, Bishop Stålsett advised the Norwegian government on issues such as arms control, disarmament, and peace and reconciliation. He twice served on the Norwegian Nobel Committee, from 1985 to 1990 and from 1994 to 2003. In addition to his work in Norway, he served his government abroad as a representative on various international commissions, including the Advisory Council for Arms Control and Disarmament and the Norwegian UNESCO Commission. He also served as Norway’s Special Envoy to East Timor after the 2006 crisis, to facilitate a national dialogue on reconciliation.

Bishop Stålsett has been ardent activist in the area of global health issues. He believes that for all the world’s illnesses, there are enough funds and resources for the suffering population of the world to be healed – and that conviction has led him to champion efforts to support the afflicted, particularly in the sphere of HIV/AIDS. Bishop Stålsett co-chaired the XVI International AIDS Conference and currently serves as an advisor to UNAIDS.

Bishop Stålsett has been engaged in highly successful interreligious and peace-building initiatives around the world. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches, and actively nurtures peace processes in many of the world’s most troubled places, including Namibia, Guatemala, East-Timor, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kosovo and Iraq.