Church committee: Male clergy must not refuse to work with women colleagues

Lutheran Bishops’ Conference to ponder ways of dealing with problems raised by women’ s ordination

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A preparatory committee of the Bishops’ Conference of Finland’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church says that a minister of the church cannot be allowed refuse to cooperate with women colleagues, and must be required to hold church services and give communion with all colleagues.
      The committee also feels that ministers who oppose the ordination of women as a matter of principle can be compelled to perform duties that violate those convictions.
      The bishops plan to draw up a list of instructions to Lutheran parishes on dealing with tensions caused by the ordination of women.
      According to the committee, the obligation to work together applies to all parish employees and to all situations, with the exception of taking communion, which is seen as an act of personal devotion, and which employees cannot be compelled to perform against their conviction. Some conservative ministers refuse to officiate at services with female colleagues, and do not approve of women administering communion.
     
The paper drawn up by the working group emphasises that disagreements should be dealt with primarily through discussions and episcopal guidance.
      Key issues in the women’s ordination controversy include how to interpret a provision contained in the 1986 decision by the Synod of the Finnish Lutheran Church to open the ministry to women, which was aimed at securing the position of ministers theologically opposed to the ordination of women.
      At that time the Synod declared that "Those members and officials of the church who take a negative view of opening the ministry to women, shall continue to have freedom to operate in our church and a possibility to be ordained and appointed to different posts in the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland."
      The committee now sees that accommodation of those who reject women’s ordination has led to discriminatory practices in some congregations, where the vicar allocates shifts at work according to gender, and where a clergywoman is rescheduled to accommodate a visiting churchman opposed to women in the ministry.


Links:
  Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland

Helsingin Sanomat