Church of Sweden Approves Marriage of Same Sex Couples


It has been quite a week for ecumenical news. First the announcement of the Apostolic Constitution from Rome last Tuesday. Then last Thursday the General Synod of the Church of Sweden voted 176 to 73, to allow same-sex church weddings.
The Church of Sweden, the established Church until 2000, has about 7 million members or 75% of the national population. It has been offering blessings of same-sex registered partnerships since 1995 and in 2007 approved a special liturgy for this. However, Swedish marriage law changed on 1 May, and registered partnerships were abolished in favour of gender-neutral marriage. The Church was thus faced with a decision about what the change means for its understanding of marriage. Earlier this year, two Church of England Bishops, Christopher Hill and John Hind, who chair the Council for Christian Unity and the Faith and Order Advisory Group, respectively, wrote to Archbishop Anders Wejryd of Uppsala (pictured above), pointing out that a decision to expand the theology of marriage to include same-sex couples risked creating immediate and negative consequences for ecumenical relations.
The Church of England is in communion with the Church of Sweden through the Porvoo Agreement which brings the British and Irish Anglican Churches into communion with 6 Lutheran Churches in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Our Diocese in Europe has major congregations in Stockholm and Gothenburg and 6 other smaller congregations throughout Sweden. In addition, the Diocese in Europe is twinned with the Swedish diocese of Visby.
Like the Church of Sweden (and other Porvoo Churches), the Church of England is facing a complex set of challenges with regard to issues in human sexuality. We are trying to find ways to balance a pastoral response to changes in society and in civil law while remaining faithful to the Bible and our received teaching about Christian anthropology and holy matrimony. Furthermore we are aware of our mutual accountability to those around the world with whom we live in sacramental communion. For these reasons the Swedish Church's decision is not one that the Church of England would feel able to make. Our Church of England clergy in Sweden are in a key position. On the one hand they know their Swedish colleagues well and seek to understand more fully the particular contextual challenges faced by a sister Church. On the other hand, they are well aware of the ecumenical and theological difficulties raised by the decision just made and are able to present and interpret the distinct view of the Church of England.
The Porvoo Agreement commits the signatory Churches to appropriate forms of consultation on significant matters of faith and order, life and work. However, such a consultation has not happened on the matter of gender-neutral marriage.
Both civil law and the Church of Sweden decision provide that no individual priest will be obliged to act against his or her conscience.
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Farewell to the Diocese in Europe

Image
Deacon Frances and I packed up our office yesterday and turned over our official files, emails and equipment. Thus a close working together for 22 years comes to an end. So it is hard to believe that today, St David's day, a new chapter begins, after 44 years of stipendiary ministry, 22 years as deacon then priest and 22 as a bishop.  Here are just a few memories from the last couple of months...   But now it is time to begin a new chapter.  O God, by whose command the order of time runs its course: forgive our impatience, perfect our faith and, while we await the fulfilment of your promise, grant us to have a good hope because of your Word,  even Jesus Christ our Lord. (St Gregory Nazianzus, 330 - 390)
Read more

Archbishop of Canterbury's Pentecost Letter: A European Consequence

Image
In his Pentecost letter, the Archbishop of Canterbury warned of certain consequences for provinces of the Anglican Communion which have failed to stand by the three moratoria . (No authorisation of blessings services for same-sex unions; no consecrations of bishops living in same-sex relationships; and no bishop authorising any ministry within the diocese of another bishop without explicit permission). One consequence would be that representatives from such provinces w ould not be able to participate in the formal international interchurch dialogues of the Communion. One of those dialogues is the Anglican-Old Catholic International Co-ordinating Council ( AOCICC ), the official instrument set up to deepen the relationship of communion established in 1931 between the Anglican Communion and the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht . As the member Churches of the Union of Utrecht are all European, the AOCICC is effectively a European body. (I am one of the members, appo...
Read more

Bishop Austin Rios of California

Image
It was a joyful, colourful, multicultural three-hour liturgy. At Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, the Revd Austin Rios was consecrated the bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of California. I have known Austin from his time as the Rector of St Paul's Episcopal Church in Rome, where he was a great friend and collaborator with our own Church of England All Saints Chaplaincy in that city. The liturgy, appropriately, marked the multiculural make-up of the diocese, with prayers, readings, hymns and songs in English, Spanish, Tagalog, Tonga and Mandarin. The final procession was led by a Chinese dragon! I was told that there were about 300 in the procession and 2000 present in the beautiful gothic cathedral on Nob Hill San Francisco. My good friend and ecuenical colleague from Rome Fr Keith Peckers SJ was also in attenance, so the Church of Rome and the Church of England were both represented! Among the bishop friends present were Bishop Mark Edington of the Episcopal Convocation in Europe, a...
Read more