Norwegians Vote to be Nice, Kind Of
The Scandinavians continue to seem rather sensible, particularly compared to the Anglican Communion. However, I have to admit that — when it comes to a matter of church doctrine — this business of "we won't ban it but you can not do it anyway" is rather wishy-washy, not to mention undermining to the idea of central authority and revealed truth. But what do I know?
OSLO, Norway: Norway's state Lutheran church on Friday lifted an outright ban on allowing those living in homosexual partnerships to serve in the clergy, but will leave it up to each bishop to make individual decisions on whether to employ them.
The compromise decision reflected the realization that the church may have to live with a deep split over the issue.
After an anguished week of debate at its annual meeting, the church's 86-member governing synod voted 50-34 to make the change. Two members abstained. The meeting, which ended Friday, was held in the town of Lillehammer.
The decision means that six of Norway's 11 bishops are likely to open the pulpit to gay clergy in partnerships. In a vote earlier in the year, those six bishops voted in favor of easing the ban.
[Associated Press, "Norway's Lutherans ease ban on allowing those in gay partnerships to serve in clergy", International Herald Tribune, 16 November 2007.]
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on Friday, 23 November 2007 at 14.28
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One of the ironies of this is that, by an agreement signed by the churches a number of years ago, the Church of England is in "full communion" with the Scandinavian Lutheran churches, including the Church of Norway, and the Church of Denmark, where gay marriage is legal. In spite of this, there are many in the Church of England who are promoting the splitting of the Anglican Communion so as to exclude The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, because some parts of them allow the blessing of gay unions.
In Canada, by the way, synods in three other dioceses have joined the Diocese of New Westminster in requesting their bishops to allow clergy to bless gay marriages. In one diocese (Niagara, in southern Ontario), the bishop has given his assent to the resolution.
In Canada, again, the situation has been changed radically by the legalizing of gay marriage. The Diocese of New Westminster's blessing of "same sex unions" pre-dates the legalization of gay marriage, and it still speaks of blessing "unions" rather than marriages. The other dioceses have requested rites for the blessing of civil gay marriages. A rite for the blessing of a civil marriage already exists, in fact, so what's really being requested is the provision of that rite to ALL civilly-married couples who request it.
Were the Anglican Church of Canada, like the Church of Denmark, the established state church, it would, of course, have no alternative but to conform to the law of the land. Were England to legalize gay marriage, of course, the Church of England would be required to do in public what it now does behind closed doors, nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more.