Sweden: More than 700 of Sweden's 5,000 Lutheran priests have signed a petition in protest at a decision last month to give same-sex couples formal blessings, which they say was forced on the church by politicians.
"This started very small but now the revolt is spreading against the way decisions are taken in the church," pastor Yngve Kalin, head of a church group collecting the signatures, told reporters from his parish in western Sweden yesterday.
The issue of gay unions for laity and the clergy divides churches around the world. In a country that prides itself on its sexual equality, the Church of Sweden has ordained women since 1960 and Archbishop KG Hammar is so pro-gay that the late Pope John Paul II cancelled an audience with him in 1998.
The church already permitted informal church blessings for gay couples, and gay rights groups welcomed a formal ceremony for registered partnerships as a step towards full church marriages.
But some saw it as a break with biblical doctrine. Rev Kalin, who has more than 700 clergy signatures on his website www.kalin.nu, accused the ruling Social Democrats, whose recent party congress agreed to seek a change in the law for same-sex civil marriages, of forcing its political agenda on the church. - (Reuters)