Showdown coming over attitudes toward women pastors

Clergyman to be investigated over refusal to work with woman

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An ecclesiastical precedent is expected to be set in a dispute over the ordination of women in the Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Church.
      Last Sunday, Jari Rankinen a religiously conservative male assistant vicar at the parish of Vammala in Western Finland, refused to work at the altar on Sunday because a woman pastor had been assigned to the same service.
      The case is the first such incident since the Lutheran Bishops’ Conference ordered parishes stop the practice of juggling the working shifts of their clergy to accommodate the demands of male ministers doctrinally opposed to ordaining women.
     
On Monday, Hannu Kilpeläinen, acting vicar at Vammala Parish, sent a report on the matter to the Cathedral Chapter of the Turku Archdiocese.
      "The Cathedral Chapter will probably appoint a rapporteur to investigate the matter", Kilpeläinen said.
      "The most serious potential consequence might be his removal from the office, but I feel that it is more likely that he will be suspended temporarily. In any case, this will set a precedent."
     
Rankinen will be entitled to appeal any decision to the Supreme Administrative Court.
      The Cathedral Chapter will hold its next meeting on Wednesday. It is possible that the matter will not be handled at that meeting yet.
      "This is certainly a serious matter. This kind of thing should not happen in this day and age", said Rauno Heikola, Dean of Turku Cathedral. However, he did not want to anticipate how the matter would proceed.
     
Labour law expert, Professor Kari-Pekka Tiitinen says that the case is a complicated one.
      "It is a question of the neglect of the obligations of a person in an employment relationship. Usually such an act would lead to a reduction of pay and a warning", Tiitinen says.
      "The nature of the employment contract affects the matter. If an employer can demonstrate that the case involves blatant neglect, termination of employment is possible.
      A similar situation is brewing in a parish in Oulu, where a conservative male pastor in the Karjasilta Parish has been scheduled to officiate at a service in April with a woman pastor.
     
Women have been ordained as clergy in the Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Church since 1986.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Church committee: Male clergy must not refuse to work with women colleagues (19.12.2006)
  Lutheran opponents of ordination of women want their own diocese (30.8.2002)

Links:
  Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland

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