Enkidu

Espanol: La Iglesia Sueca, Un Paso Más Cerca de las Ceremonias de Compromiso

The Swedish Church One Step Closer to Partnership ceremonies

The High Council of the Swedish National Church decided on Thursday 23 October 2003 to continue its preparations for a liturgical ritual for commitment ceremonies for same sex couples in the churches. 120 delegates of the church council voted in favour of this, while 102 voted against. The first draft for a liturgical ritual, which also will receive official recognition and be legally binding, will be presented at next year’s church council in the autumn. The debate took 4 hours and is reported to have been hard at several times. Some speakers, among them Hans Stiglund, bishop of Lumeå, warned the Council to make decisions that would block or determine further discussion of homosexuality in the Swedish Church. He emphasized that it is necessary to start the debate from a position of utmost openness. Another high prelat (“komminister”) Nils-Arne Rehnström was among the most critical delegates to the Council. He described a liturgical ritual for partnership ceremonies as an “institutional obscenity”.

The Archbishop K. G. Hammer, however, was extremely careful in his response to the decision and underlined that the decision to open the church for partnership ceremonies is not a principal final decision on behalf of the Swedish Church. The discussion will continue.

The decision is a step in the process and not its end. Those knowing how the Church functions understand that a decision breaking a long tradition needs to be carefully explained and discussed and cannot be implemented faster

(Beslutet är ett steg till i processen och inget stopp. Den som vet hur kyrkan fungerar och att beslut som bryter en lång tradition behöver begrundas ordentligt förstår nog att det inte kan gå fortare. )

According to a survey conducted by the weekly bulletin of the Swedish Church, Kyrkans Tidning, the number of regular priests prepared to perform partnership ceremonies now, has increased from 24 to 45% within 3 years (Enkidu/RFSL).

Enkidu’s fact file about the Swedish National Church (by LIOWLB, Science editor, Enkidu)

The first Christian communities in Sweden were established around the year 800 by missionaries from Germany and the British Isles. The population was hostile to Christianity and the conversion took several centuries. Pre-Christian beliefs lived on for a long period, even after Christianity had become the only official state religion. Around the year 1000 the sources mention the first baptised king Olof Skötkonung. From the 12^th century on, all Swedish kings have been Christian. The Archbishop of Sweden resided originally in Lund in Southern Sweden, which was part of the reign of the Danish kingdom until the 17^th century. Therefore the archbishop seat moved to the university town Uppsala in 1164 where it still is located.

The Reformation was implemented in Sweden in 1527 and a separate Swedish liturgy and a Swedish document of confession was adopted by the Church in 1594. The first complete translation of the bible into Swedish vernacular language was issued in 1541. The modern Church of Sweden consolidated as State Church in the 17^th century when all other religious communities were suppressed by the crown in both Sweden and Finland (which was ruled by the Swedish king until 1808).

Today around 70% of the Swedish population are members of the National Church, which is defined as Evangelical-Lutheran, but less than 5% of the people are active church-goers and Sweden as well as the other Scandinavian kingdoms Norway and Denmark count among the most thoroughly secularised countries in the world. The Church is still one of the most important National institutions and its decisions have a certain symbolic importance for large segments of the population.

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