A Lutheran minister was suspended Tuesday for saying that God doesn't exist and there is no eternal life.
Thorkild Grosboel, pastor of Taarbaek, a town of 51,000 just north of Copenhagen, said in a recent interview that "there is no heavenly God, there is no eternal life, there is no resurrection."
The statements have mystified church leaders in the Scandinavian country of 5.3 million, where about 85 percent of the population belongs to the state Evangelical Lutheran Church, yet just 5 percent attend church services regularly.
Bishop Lise-Lotte Rebel of the Helsingoer diocese, which includes Taarbaek, said Grosboel's comments "caused confusion" within the church.
"There should be no doubt that priests have committed themselves to act within the church's confession of faith," she said.
After meeting with Grosboel on Tuesday, the bishop demanded he retract his comments and apologize. She also suspended him from his duties as town pastor.
Grosboel declined to comment but will meet with Rebel again next week in her diocese in Helsingoer, 20 miles north of Copenhagen.
Rebel said it's up to the Danish government's Ministry for Ecclesiastic Affairs to decide if Grosboel should be defrocked. In Denmark, Lutheran pastors are employed by the state and bishops cannot fire them.
Many clergy, including Tove Fergo, the Minister for Ecclesiastic Affairs, have said it's not possible to be a pastor without believing in the existence of God and the resurrection of Christ.
Others, however, including Mogens Lindhardt, the leader of Denmark's Theological College of Education, called Grosboel's claims "refreshing."