Swedish Church allows same-sex service: CEN 12.21.07 p 8 December 26, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Sweden, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue.trackback
The Church of Sweden will permit same-sex couples to have church weddings, so long as they are not called marriages.
On Dec 12 the church’s governing board said it believed marriage and gay partnerships were “equivalent forms of unions.” The “word ‘marriage’ should however only be used for the relationship between a woman and a man,” they said.
The Church had been asked by the government to give its views on a proposed amendment to Sweden’s marriage laws, making its language “gender neutral.” The church said “yes to the proposal to join the legislation for marriages and partnerships into a single law,” so long as the term ‘marriage’ was reserved for male/female couples.
Uppsala Archbishop Anders Wejryd said “there were different opinions on the board, but there was a large majority who felt that the word marriage should only be used for man/woman relationships.”
Since 1995 Swedish law has permitted gay civil unions, but legislation enacted in 1987 defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
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