Translate your church service into Norwegian

English-speaking churches in Norway

Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim all have English-speaking congregations, from Anglican chaplaincies to international free churches serving people who came for the energy sector, universities or hospitals. Over time these churches gain Norwegian members: spouses, colleagues, neighbours who came to a Christmas service and stayed, and children who grew up in Norway and are more at home in Norwegian than in English.

For them, an English sermon is usually understandable but not always restful. A live translation into Norwegian lets a Norwegian husband follow the sermon as comfortably as his wife from Texas, and it makes the church easier to recommend to friends who would never walk into an English-language service.

Norwegians visiting churches abroad

Norwegians travel and study abroad in large numbers, and plenty of them look for a church while they are away. A British or Irish church near a university, or a church in a holiday area in Spain, can offer Norwegian for these visitors without hiring anyone. It costs nothing on Sundays when no one chooses Norwegian, because a language only uses credits while someone listens.

Partner churches and joint events

Some British churches have long-standing links with a congregation in Norway: exchanges of youth groups, mission partnerships or shared conferences. When the Norwegian group visits, switch on Norwegian for that weekend so the older members of the group, who may be less confident in English, can follow everything. When your own group visits Norway, the host church can do the same in reverse with English.

How listeners use it

1. 01
   Scan

   Visitors scan the church's QR code or open its link. It works in the browser on any smartphone, and there is also an iOS app.

2. 02
   Choose Norsk

   They pick Norwegian from the list of languages your church has made available.

3. 03
   Listen and read

   The translated voice follows the preacher with a few seconds of delay. Live captions appear on screen, and the original English text can be shown alongside.

Translation is into Norwegian bokmål. Bible names and church terms are the hardest part for any translation, and ChurchTranslate keeps a terminology list per language to correct known terms in the captions. It is good for following a sermon; it is not flawless. Read more in Bible names and terms.

Cost

A two-hour joint service into Norwegian costs 120 credits. For a church that only needs Norwegian a few times a year, an extra credit pack is often the best fit: 300 credits cost €50 and never expire. See the pricing.