Three men face charges of criminal discrimination against woman pastor in Hyvinkää

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Refusal to work with a woman pastor at a church in Hyvinkää last March has brought charges of discrimination to three men.
      Hyvinkää District Court Prosecutor Jari Auvinen has decided to press charges of criminal discrimination against two members of the Lutheran Evangelical Association in Finland (LEAF), and charges of discrimination in the workplace against the then substitute vicar of the particular parish in Hyvinkää.
      This is the first time that the controversy in the Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Church - over the resistance of some conservative male clergy to the ordination of women - has extended into the realm of worldly law enforcement.
     
The case goes back to March of this year , when a woman pastor had been scheduled for a shift at a Sunday morning Holy Communion service, where she would help distribute wine and wafer.
      When the pastor showed up for the service, a visiting preacher of the LEAF said that he would be unable to take part in any service in which a woman pastor was serving.
      After a brief discussion in the vestry, the woman pastor left the church. At present, the prosecutor is not willing to reveal what actually was said in the situation.
     
In the prosecutor's view, the visiting pastor and the chairman of the local LEAF association who helped arrange the visit were guilty of discrimination, as they prevented the female pastor from doing her work on the basis of her gender.
      Tauno Tuominen, who was the acting vicar at the Hyvinkää parish last spring, is facing charges of work discrimination as he was in a supervisory position with respect to the clergywoman. Even though he did not participate actively in the situation, he also did not intervene to prevent the discrimination from taking place, the prosecutor argues.
      The suspects have denied that they had committed any crime.
      Initially the Central Uusimaa Police had suspicions that a futher clergyman officiating at the service would also have been guilty of discrimination. However, the police have found this curate not guilty of anything, as his role was only to lead the service, and the woman pastor was not his subordinate.
      Only a representative of the employer can be charged with work-related discrimination, while anybody can be guilty of ordinary discrimination.
      The Hyvinkää District Court has not announced a date for the trial as yet.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Police investigate claims of discrimination against women clergy in Hyvinkää (20.4.2007)

Links:
  Lutheran Evangelical Association in Finland (LEAF)

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