Historic Hauge Seminar in Northfield, USA
On April 8 of this year, the first Hauge seminar of its kind in the US was held at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Bruce Dalgaard ,left, along with lectures Magne Supphellen, Ola Grytten and leader of the Hauge Institute Sigbjorn Ravnåsen, guests from Norway.
From the Hauge seminar at St. Olaf College. Semiar leader Bruce Dalgaard in front.
Seminar leader was Professor Bruce Dalgaard, who has, for a number of years, been associated with the Hauge Institute and participated in several of the Institute’s seminars in Oslo and Asker. Feedback from those who attended the seminar was very positive. It was not a large gathering, but there were representatives from both Canada and the US, including the large fraternal organization, the Sons of Norway, who supported making this seminar an annual event! A big thanks to Professor Dalgaard and the capable lecturers he was able to get for the seminar. These included two from Norway and “Hans Nielsen Hauge,” who proclaimed a good old-fashioned “prayer meeting,” along with a focus on ethics and social responsibility in business.
St. Olaf College.
Joe Shaw professor emaratus of religion, St. Olaf and Sigbjørn Ravnåsen, Researcher and Institute Leader, The Hauge Institute.
St. Olaf College has a deep connection to Hans Nielsen Hauge. For example, there is the “Hauge Room,” a beautifully arranged study room with old oak furniture and stained glass windows that clearly show the connection to Haugean immigrants. The windows have scenes of Hauge in prison and as preacher, and the Holy Spirit as a dove over a Norwegian forest and over a boat on the way to America. Engraved under the windows of the campus library are words from the first Psalm, which are the foundation of the Hauge Institute.
St. Olaf College was founded by Norwegian immigrants to Minnesota. Eager Norwegians “in the village of Northfield” wanted to have a Lutheran school for their children, and in 1874 established the St. Olaf School. In 1889, its name was changed to St. Olaf College. From about 1825 until the First World War, only Ireland had more immigrants to the US than Norway. The first rector, and later president, of St. Olaf College was Thorbjorn Nelson Mohn, born in Sauherad, Telemark. He came with his parents to America in 1853. In 1860, he was confirmed in southern Minnesota, near Rochester, and was later ordained as a clergyman in the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. However, he devoted most of his life to St. Olaf until his death in 1899.