Church Army Denmark

The work of Church Army in Denmark began in 1912. The founder was the Revd H P Mollerup a minister of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church. He had been working as a Seafarers Chaplain in Hull in the North of England. He came across the work of Church Army, had a meeting with Wilson Carlile, and went home to Denmark and started the work. As far as we know, outside of Denmark this work was not known until the mid 1970's when contact was made with Church Army UK & Ireland.

The name of the organisation in Denmark was until 2009, Kirkens Korshaer which being roughly translated into English is Church Cross Army. The name was changed in that year to 'Dan Church Social' for two reasons: first to more adequately communicate the nature of the work which is essentially social work within the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church, and secondly so as to sit alongside another organisation within the Church known as 'Dan Church Aid' which is the international diaconal work of the Danish Lutheran Church. Mr Mollerup originally recruited and trained people to lead missions and to engage in various social care/outreach projects. He also recruited large teams of volunteers, a feature which is still prominent in the work today. Over the years the direct evangelistic work has disappeared and today the work focuses on social outreach with homeless people. Dan Church Social is described as a faith based, social, non-missionary organisation rooted in the Danish National Evangelical Lutheran Church. It is described as one of the largest Non Government Organisations in Denmark and sees its work as the following:

1. To meet the poor and marginalised without prejudice.

2. To deliver concrete, useful services to the poor on their own conditions.

3. To collect, analyse and mobilise our experiences and relate them to the trends in wider society. Even if we are in danger of being discriminated ourselves, we have to operate as advocates for the poor and excluded. The Gospel demands solidarity with the poor.

4. To relate to the Church of Denmark and its social and human responsibility.

Dan Church Social works in 26 cities/communities in Denmark. It has a paid staff of 480 with around 6,000 active volunteers and an annual budget of 170 million Krona [USA $35 million, UK £17 million]. It runs 215 second-hand clothes shops, 32 soup kitchens, 3 night cafes were homeless people sleep on the floor and 7 hostels for homeless people. Kirkens Korshaer is subsidised by the State, however the bulk of the income has to be raised through trusts, individuals, the second-hand shops and around 200 support groups who raise money locally.

The leader of Dan Church Social is Helle Christiansen who was appointed in 2011 having been previously Chief of Development in the organisation.

Contact Details:

Website: www.danchurchsocial.dk

Email: helle.christiansen@kobenhavn.kirkenskorshaer.dk

Postal Address: Ms Helle Christiansen dan Church Social, Nikolaj Plads 15, 1067 Kobenhavn Denmark

Telephone: +45 3312 1600