Protestantism has been the main religion in
Greenland since the advent of Norwegian priest
Hans Egede. Majority of the the residents are
Protestants of the
Evangelical Lutheran sect.
The Roman Catholic religion, introduced to Greenland by Leif the Happy around the 11th century, slowly degraded and finally became extinct, mainly because of the Eskimo intervention and intermarriage with the Christian Norse settlers. Therefore, for a period of about two hundred years, no form of Christianity persisted in Greenland.
In the eighteenth century, however, Norwegian Hans Egede pastor wanted to bring Christianity to the people of Greenland. He was appointed missionary, and visited the island, only to find that no descendants of the original Christian community remained. He was therefore faced with the difficult task of converting the Pagan Eskimo population.
Through hard work, he succeeded in converting the Eskimos. His son Paul carried on his good work. Protestantism flourished in Greenland, only to run into a wall of difficulties later, with friction among missionaries and important people in the Church. The German Moravian brethren came forward to help out in this situation.
After mass baptism, these troubles plagued the people of Greenland. With time, the religion became more superficial, with missionaries being involved in futile attempts to reinforce Christianity. Finally, at present, the island has adopted Lutheran Evangelism as it main religion, missionaries being suspended. Greenland became an independent Home Rule administered diocese with its own bishop in the year 19993. The main established church in Greenland now is the Danish National Evangelical Lutheran Church.
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