Norway's state
Lutheran Church on Friday lifted an outright ban on
allowing those living in same-sex 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 reflects 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.
The church
already allows gays to serve in the clergy as long as they
are not living in a same-sex partnership.
Friday's vote
prompted mixed reaction on whether it would settle the
emotional debate.
''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.''
The synod's vote
was a compromise revision of a 1997 resolution by the
highest body in Norway's state Protestant Church that barred
all clergy who enter homosexual partnerships from
holding consecrated jobs.
Under Norwegian
law, people in gay partnerships have the same rights as
those in heterosexual marriages, apart from church weddings
and adoption.
The church, with
nearly 85% of Norway's 4.7 million people as members,
has remained locked in a heated debate on the topic.
Opponents of gay
clergy believe homosexuality is contrary to Biblical
teachings, while proponents say a modern church should be
open to all faithful, regardless of sexual
orientation.
''Finally, I can
get rid of the feeling of having a B-team membership in
the church,'' gay church member Arne Groenningsaeter was
quoted as telling the Norwegian news agency NTB.
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.
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 male partner in violation of the 1997 church
decision.
Varying practices
in 11 bishops' districts could trigger lawsuits on
whether different employment practices in the same
organization violate antidiscrimination and labor
laws.
''This is food
for the supreme count,'' said synod delegate Hans Petter
Jahre, a special legal adviser to the national prosecutor.
(Doug Mellgren, AP)
