Evangelical Lutheran Church blocks pastors officiating gay weddings despite new law in Finland
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland will not allow pastors to officiate same-sex weddings regardless of the new gender-neutral marriage law that will take effect in March 2017.
The Bishops' Conference produced a set of guidelines to address the revisions that will be introduced to the Marriage Act, the Helsinki Times reported.
"It can be concluded that the changes to be introduced to the Marriage Act on 1 March, 2017, will have no effect on the rights of pastors to officiate church weddings," the report stated.
While the Church Handbook forbids pastors to officiate same-sex weddings, they are still allowed to pray for all couples who had a civil marriage. The Bishops' Conference maintained same-sex couples are still welcomed by the Church.
"Same-sex couples are welcome to all church activities and shall be treated as families, even though they have not entered into marriage in accordance with the Church Act," wrote the bishops.
According to a survey conducted by Lännen Media in 2014, 40 percent of Finnish pastors are willing to perform same-sex marriages.
Two such pastors have already declared their intention to defy the controversial Church policy. Liinamaria Roos and Toni Fagerholm announced that they will be performing same-sex marriage rites when the new Marriage Act takes effect in March.
Fagerholm expressed his intent to film a ceremony and upload the video to Youtube. He has previously gone against the Church when he blessed a lesbian couple during the Helsinki Pride march.
The two pastors said that they are not worried about any disciplinary measures resulting from their actions.
"It is a dialogue that we simply must have. We will discuss all of this in our cathedral chapter," Fagerholm said.
Same-sex unions were legalized in Finland in 2002. The amendments to the Marriage Act will allow the unions to be converted into full-fledged marriages.
