Speech by Bishop Anne Lise Ådnøy from YouTube video above translated to English.

Bishop Anne Lise Ådnøy greets the crew and friends of Restauration. Now it is fast approaching 2025 and then we will celebrate, be careful to call it a celebration and not a jubilee, That 200 years ago the boat, skutå, set out from the harbor in Stavanger was filled with religious refugees. Back then, 200 years ago, the church had state power at its back and it had a monopoly in the religious area. So when people appeared who had learned the Quaker way of being a Christian, they were excluded from society. They were not allowed to bury their children where they wanted, they were not allowed to celebrate services in the way they wanted. They were simply persecuted. It is a disgrace to the history of the Norwegian church, but we cannot always correct the sins of the past. What one can do is to be vigilant today and ensure that religious persecution and harassment do not occur in our society. I’m rooting for everyone who plans this marking and the voyage that will go up the route again as it was 200 years ago. The bishop hopes that it will be a wake-up call for our city and for Norway that one has this blot on one’s record. We must make sure it never happens again. The bishop will be with the Quakers at a commemoration when the ship is to leave. She is looking forward to that.