Rolling church to carry asylum-seeker

OSLO, Norway, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Supporters of a Norwegian woman who has been in church asylum for seven years have converted a car into a church on wheels to allow her to travel.

The rolling church was created so Shahla Valadi, an Iranian Kurd who converted to Christianity, can attend a demonstration in Oslo, Aftenposten reported Thursday.

The protest march was organized for Valadi by TV preacher Egil Svartdahl and his assistant, Monica Oien. The protest is planned to begin in downtown Oslo and end at the Norwegian parliament, where Svartdahl and Bishop Helga Haugland Byfuglien will address the crowd.

Svartdahl said the bishop declined to consecrate the wheeled church.

"We respect the bishop's no to the blessing of the church. There is no condition of consecration for a church building to qualify as a sanctuary for church asylum. The Filadelfia in Mysen is not consecrated in the Lutheran or Catholic sense, but the authorities understand what makes a house of god, and we hope that they will continue to have that respect," Svartdahl said.