Swedish Lutheran Church Official Sees Hope for Restored Relations with Russian Orthodox Multilateral Partnership Continues Under Regional Church Council
UPPSALA, Sweden/GENEVA, 12 April 2006 (LWI) * A Church of Sweden official from the northern diocese of Lulea sees hope for the resumption of bilateral relations between the Swedish Lutheran and Russian Orthodox churches. The relations were suspended after an October 2005 vote by the Swedish church's General Synod to introduce a special service of blessing for civil partnerships.
The decision by the Swedish church implies that a couple in a formally recognized partnership, including a same-sex civil partnership, is entitled to an official blessing of the relationship in a Church of Sweden parish.
Announcing suspension of its bilateral relations with the Swedish church, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in a December 2005 statement said that the Swedish church had not only failed to "oppose the so-called same-sex marriages, but also issued a decree to establish an official blessing rite for those same marriages."
"We regret that the Russian Orthodox Church has come to this decision. They take a 'time-out' in our bilateral co-operation," Ms Inger Aasa-Marklund, Lulea diocese's international and ecumenical officer, said in an interview with Lutheran World Information (LWI). "We hope it will be possible to resume it in the future," she added.
The ten-year cooperation, involving the Lutheran Diocese of Lulea and Orthodox Diocese of Murmansk-Montjegorsk included activities such as joint conferences on Sunday-school work, issues on environmental protection, health camps and regular visits by church delegations.
Because of the suspended bilateral relations, some events planned for 2006 have been cancelled. They include two health camps for Russian children in northern Sweden, and the Diocese of Lulea's 19*24 April journey to Murmansk to share in the Russian Easter Sunday celebration on 23 April.
Aasa-Marklund expressed appreciation that contact between both churches is continuing under the Council of Christian Churches in the Barents Region, an over ten-year multilateral partnership comprising Lutheran and Orthodox dioceses in Finland, Norway, the Russian Federation and Sweden. The issue of suspended relations was discussed early this year in the context of the council's ordinary meetings.
Proposed Liturgical Order
Meanwhile on March 13, the Church of Sweden Central Board sent the proposed liturgical order for the optional act of blessing for legally recognized partnerships to its 13 dioceses. Church of Sweden Secretary for Theology, Dr Goeran Moeller, who was involved in preparing the proposed liturgical order, said the criticism raised by the Russian Orthodox Church [and separately by the (Anglican) Church of England in January 2006] had been taken seriously by the Church of Sweden, but not to the extent of discontinuing the drafting procedure of the new order. A churchwide decision on the proposal is expected later this year.
Option Already Existed in Pastoral Context
Moeller explained that the Swedish church's general synod decision was not about introducing a same-sex marriage act, but rather about an optional act of blessing for couples whose partnerships were registered by a civil authority. The issue of cohabitation, he told LWI, had been on the agenda of the church's governing bodies over recent years, with theological discussions on the subject throughout the country at diocesan and parish levels.
"This option has existed in the Church of Sweden since 1995, although in the more private context of pastoral counseling," Moeller told LWI. But what would be new, he explained, would be the more explicit recognition of an act of the church in a public service.
Around 77 percent of Sweden's 9 million people belong to the Church of Sweden. With over 6.9 million members, it is the largest member church of the Lutheran World Federation. (610 words)
(Reported by Lulea-based journalist, Hakan Sjunnesson.)
(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140 member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total membership of 66.2 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)
[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service. Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]
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