November 21, 2007

Lutheran Church in Norway allows clergy in committed same-sex relationships

On Friday, November 16, 2007, by a vote of 50–34 (2 abstentions), the 86-member governing synod of Norway's state Lutheran church, meeting in Lillehammer, changed the previous prohibitive policy and will allow those living in homosexual partnerships to serve in the clergy, but it will be up to each bishop to decide whether to employ them.

It was reported that at least six of the 11 bishops are thought likely to employ partnered gay clergy, since they voted earlier in the year in favor of making this change.

Since 1997, gays have been allowed to serve in the clergy in Norway as long as they were not in a relationship, similar to the policy in effect at the moment in the ELCA. Obviously there were strikingly different reactions to the decision from those in favor or opposed.

"This will create peace in the church, and security for homosexual clergy," Marit Tingelstad, head of the Bishop's Council for southeastern Norway's Hamar district, said on the state radio network NRK.

Bishop Ole D Hagesaeter, of the Bjoergvin district, said, "This is a sad day for the church. It will be a splitting factor and lead to many feeling homeless in the church."

By law, people living in committed same-sex relationships are granted the same rights as found in marriage, with the exception that they have no right to be married in the church and they cannot adopt children.

The new principle adopted by the ruling synod states that there are two opposite views, both based on church teachings, on same-sex relationships.

According to the Associated Press, some gay clergy already serve in parochial posts. In 1999, Norway's first female bishop, Rosamarie Kohn, now retired, faced an uprising by some of her own clergy by allowing lesbian clergywoman Siri Sunde to return to the pulpit even though she married a woman.

The Associated Press also reported that in 2000, the Norwegian government, which formally employs all state church staff, upheld the appointment of Jens Torstein Olsen as a clergyman in Oslo, even though he lived with a gay partner in violation of the 1997 church decision.