Bishops ponder gay marriage vote implications
The Finnish Lutheran Church is unlikely to allow gay marriages in churches, according to several bishops interviewed by Yle. They were responding to a spike in resignations from the church that saw some 13,000 people leave the organisation since parliament approved a gender-neutral marriage law.
Since parliamentvoted on Friday to allow same-sex marriages, more than 13,000 people haveresigned from the church. Feedback to the eroakirkosta.fi church resignationwebsite indicated they were reacting to Archbishop Kari Mäkinen’s comments thathe ’rejoiced’ over the vote.
Now churchleaders have moved to calm traditional church members, with several bishopsindicating that gay marriages are unlikely to be taking place in Finnishchurches any time soon.
The Bishopof Porvoo Björn Vikström said he thought the church was the focus of protestsfrom people who felt powerless.
”Thedecision has aroused a lot of anger,” said Vikström. ”People are disappointedand want to protest. As they cannot resign from the state or from theparliament, then at least some of that anger has been focused on the church andon the archbishop’s comments.”
Meanwhilehis counterparts have been quick to quash speculation that the vote could meangay marriages could now take place in churches.
”Theparliamentary vote doesn’t really change anything in the church,” said theBishop of Espoo, Tapio Luoma. ”It’s clear that the church will make its owndecisions according to its own beliefs. On the other hand developments in widersociety have affected decision-making before. The church cannot close itselfoff.”
Bothbishops see that the church has to react somehow, and in practice it has threeoptions. The first is that it continues as before, and only marriesheterosexual couples. The second is that the church also marries gay couples,and the third option is that the church no longer officially marries anyone.
That optionis a popular one with the two bishops.
”Ifeveryone first gets married at a registry office and then those that want tocome to ask for their union to be blessed, that would be easier to get through,”said Vikström. ”On the other hand the danger is that the church has a longtradition of marrying people, and many priests have said to me that it wouldnot be a good idea to give that up.”
”It wouldstrengthen the church’s independence and autonomy to decide what it does,” saidLuoma. ”A situation in which we have a different handle on what marriage is tothe society and the government creates a tension that isn’t good for anyone.”