Sweden's Lutheran
Church will allow same-sex couples to wed in church as
long as the term marriage is reserved for
straight couples, the organization announced Wednesday.
The Swedish
government sought the position of the church since 7.2
million citizens of the country's population of 9.1 million
are members of the Swedish Lutheran Church. Lawmakers
are preparing a bill on gender-neutral marriage that
will be presented to parliament early in 2008, Agence
France-Presse reported.
"Marriage and
[same-sex] partnerships are equivalent forms of unions.
Therefore the Church of Sweden's central board says yes to
the proposal to join the legislation for marriages and
partnerships into a single law," church officials said
in a statement. The statement also acknowledged that
while some members of the church's board disagreed with
the stance, a large majority felt the word marriage
should be used only for heterosexual
relationships.
While Swedish
gays and lesbians have been allowed to enter civil unions
since 1995, LGBT organizations have been pushing for the
distinction between heterosexual marriage and civil
unions to be eliminated, the article said. Since
January the church has offered same-sex couples a
religious blessing of their civil union. However, standing
20-year-old Swedish law defines marriage as a union
between a man and a woman. If the new legislation is
adopted, Sweden would be the first country in the
world to allow gay couples to wed within a major
church. (The Advocate)
