Archbishop: Christian Church cannot accept any kind of discrimination

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In his opening speech at the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in Turku on Monday, Archbishop Jukka Paarma said bluntly that clergymen who refuse to officiate at services with female ministers for reasons of conscience should seek other kinds of employment within the church.
      The Archbishop added that the Christian Church cannot accept any kind of discrimination or refusal to perform official duties.
     
Paarma noted further that the recent difficult situations in certain congregations in which a conservative minister has refused to officiate at services with female colleagues have not so much been about the ordination of women. The point has been whether or not all employees of the church are obliged to perform their official duties, or whether or not someone has the right to refuse his duties for reasons of conscience.
      "A minister is there for the congregation, and if the congregation has chosen both male and female ministers, it is not an individual minister's business to sort out his colleagues into those he accepts, and those he does not", argues Paarma.
     
The attitude toward female clergy is not on the agenda of the Synod that is convening this week. However, the Archbishop’s tough opening speech appeared to encourage discussions on the issue.
      "The Archbishop’s speech indicated the kind of leadership that is needed in this situation", commented one of the Synod representatives, Th.D. Pauliina Kainulainen. She is working as a minister in a Joensuu congregation with three female and three male ministers.
      While not having experienced any kind of discrimination at work herself, Kainulainen has received hate mail, as have many of her female colleagues.
     
Synod representative Lasse Marjokorpi does not accept the ordination of women, and regards Paarma's opening address as surprising and shocking.
      "I naturally accept female clergy as individuals, while finding the ordination of women theologically incorrect and being against the word of God", Marjokorpi states.
      Even though the ordination of women was approved by the Synod of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church back in 1986, a small minority of male clergy still opposes the ordination of women, twenty years on.
      At the same time, the number of female ministers is continuously growing. In 2005, the number of clergywomen was 748, being more than one-third of the total number of tenures.
     
According to Archbishop Jukka Paarma, it is possible that one of these days the Church will face a situation in which a secular court sets a precedent for the interpretation of the Equality Act within the church.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Almost every second minister is female in Greater Helsinki Lutheran congregations (18.4.2007)

Links:
  Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

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