Berkley Center

Rev. Canon Dr. Trond Bakkevig is a pastor in the Lutheran Church of Norway and dean of Vestre Aker in Oslo, as well as an associate senior researcher at PRIO. Bakkevig has served in a number of prominent positions including general secretary of the Church of Norway Council on Foreign Relations (1984-1993), personal advisor to the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and pastor of the Röa parish in Oslo (1993-2000). From 1997 to 2006 he was a member of the World Council of Churches' Central Committee. Since 1996, Bakkevig has facilitated dialogue between Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religious leaders in Israel and the Palestinian Territories; he convenes the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land, involving the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, bishops and bishoprics of Jerusalem, and Muslims appointed by the president of the Palestinian Authority. Bakkevig received a doctorate in theology from the University of Oslo in 1979.