Jørgen Koch Larsen

  Notater:

The Shalom Ecumenical Church was founded by Bishop Joergen Koch Larsen (1914-1989). Larsen was born in Denmark and raised in the Lutheran Church of Denmark, his father being a dean in the church. He was serving in the Danish Army when World War II erupted. After Hitler overran Denmark, he was arrested, escaped, and served in the Danish underground. He migrated to Canada after the war and served in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps in the Korean War.
Larsen claimed to have been in possession of a rare manuscript, a "fifth Gospel," possibly the book of Jesus' sayings that many scholars believe stood behind and was a source for the four gospels in the Christian Bible. His father had brought the manuscript to Denmark from the Holy Land around 1920. The original manuscript was destroyed by the Gestapo but not before Larsen made a copy of it. He claimed to have brought the copy with him to Canada.
Larsen was consecrated as a bishop by Peter Wayne Goodrich of the North American Episcopal Church. Shortly thereafter he founded the Shalom Ecumenical Church in Hamilton, Ontario. While possessing apostolic orders, the church differed considerably from the tradition from which he assumed his authority. Larsen articulated what he considered a scientific approach to Christianity. The church is non-Trinitarian. Jesus is accepted as Messiah, Son of Man, and Son of God, but all of God's children are also considered sons and daughters of God. One becomes a child of God by keeping the Ten Commandments and the strictures of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6-8). The church disavows belief in purgatory, hell, or the devil. Evil exists, but not the Evil One. There are only two sacraments, baptism and the eucharist.
Church groups meet in private homes, there being no church buildings. Membership is limited to those with one or more college/university degree(s). . In 1988 the church claimed approximately 200 members in Canada, the United States, and Scandinavia.
Kilde: Gary L. Waed: Independent Bishops: An International Directory. Detroit, MI: Apogee Books, 1990. 524 pp.

  Begivenheder i hans liv:

• Konfirmation, 25 Sep. 1927, Århus, Vor Frue Kirke. ²

• Folketælling, 5 Nov. 1930. ³ gymnasiast, i forældrenes hushold Kaserneboulevard 9, Århus købstad

• -, 1933. ⁴ er stud. med., medlem af Aarhus Studentersangere

• Gift: med Martha. ⁵ datter af sognerådsformand i Skjød

• -. ⁵ fik tuberkulose og kom sig, men måtte efterfølgende ikke arbejde som læge i DK, hvorfor han flyttede til Toronto i Canada og arbejdede som læge (vist nok universitetsprofessor).

• Bopæl. Toronto, Canada

• -, 19 Aug. 1951. ⁶ flyver fra København til New York - Jørgen Koch Larsen 37 år, Martha Larsen 33 år og Ingolf Koch Larsen 3 år. Permanent adresse 60 Appleton Ave, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

• Ved død, 1989. ⁷

• Begravet, 1989. ⁸ Woodland Cemetery, Hamilton, Hamilton Municipality, Ontario, Canada