HS put three questions to seven candidates seeking post of Archbishop
Martti Hirvonen
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Seppo Häkkinen
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Miikka Ruokanen
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Kari Mäkinen
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Jouni Lehikoinen
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Seppo Rissanen
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Samuel Salmi
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By Katja Kuokkanen - evaluations are based on interviews with various experts
1. Why should a Finn be a member of the Church under your leadership?
2. Would you ordain a theologian living in a registered same-sex civil union?
3. What are the greatest challenges facing the Church in the coming years?
Vicar Martti Hirvonen
1. The church is not present only at the beginning and end of life. It should be a part of festivities as well as day-to-day living.
I would like to give the Church back the value that it deserves: for centuries, the Church has been showing the way for important changes.
Sunday school, children’s clubs, the scouts, and confirmation school create a valuable foundation for growth for the various generations.
2. The Church adheres to traditional marriage. According to this, God has created humans as men and women and established matrimony.
A registered civil union is a factor that needs to be considered when evaluating the suitability of someone applying for ordination for the clergy, which I would give careful consideration before agreeing to it.
3. Many might feel that the status of the church is growing weaker at a time when society is typified more by splintering than by continuity. I take the opposite view: the Church has a mission to bring stability to people.
Strengthening church unity and encouraging commitment by its members is a challenge. Migration in cities can lead to a situation in which no connection with one’s own congregation is established. In such a situation, thoughts might arise that there is nothing to be gained from paying the church tax.
HS evaluation: The Vicar of St. Catherine’s Congregation in Turku, who plays volleyball, speaks on behalf of the weak, and adheres to scripture. Not likely to be chosen Archbishop.
Bishop Seppo Häkkinen
1. The faith of the church is a sustaining force when a person’s own faith is weak. Under the doctrine of the Church, the congregation is part of living as a Christian.
The Church holds the tools of salvation - the Word of God and the sacraments, which are missing in a do-it-yourself faith. Can self-made faith hold up in a crisis, and does the God of one’s own desires give security in the face of death?
2. For those asking to be ordained as a minister, I emphasise an overall evaluation, and suitability and commitment to the faith and life of the Church. Raising an individual issue above other criteria is a problem.
3. Bringing the message of the Church into the modern day with words and deeds. Protecting the unity of the Church becomes increasingly significant. Likewise, strengthening Church membership, and maintaining the significance of the Church remain central.
The Church is important in wielding influence through values, whose significance is seen in love for one’s neighbour. The danger of splitting apart is always present. Women’s ordination and homosexuality are issues which divide the Church; in the worst case, this can lead to the resignations of some groups from the Church.
HS evaluation: The Bishop of Mikkeli defended a doctoral dissertation last month on commitment as a member of the Church. He describes himself as a hard-working man who has morphed from being colourless to grey. A strong contender.
Professor Miikka Ruokanen
1. There would be no Finnish identity without Lutheranism, and women would certainly not have an independent position. The Lutheran foundation of values is the best guarantee of well-being.
There are examples of what happens when morality based on Christianity collapses. An increasingly hard, competitive society leads to inequality. The Church reminds people that nobody can be allowed to drop outside society.
2. I would not. The Church teaches that a relationship between a man and a woman is the Bible’s concept of humanity. A worker of the Church should represent the Biblical alternative. A homosexual relationship is a model that is foreign to this.
There is room in the congregation for people living in different ways: homosexual Christians are brothers and sisters.
3. Church membership has already dropped to less than 80 per cent of the population. The Church is losing EUR 340 million in membership fees between 2008 and 2015. We cannot afford to maintain costly structures.
Workers who are retiring can be replaced by increasing voluntary efforts. Giving responsibilities to members of the congregation also increases their commitment to Church membership.
The Church should be more a popular movement than a producer of public services.
The Archbishop should be an inspiring leader for change.
HS evaluation: The Professor of Dogma at the University of Helsinki is prone to enthusiasm, and is the favourite of conservative members of the Church. He lacks administrative experience, but could be one of the top candidates.
Bishop Samuel Salmi
1. I want to be on the side of those whose voices are not heard: families with children, the elderly, and the marginalised.
The bigger our Church is, the more extensive is its contact surface as a force drawing attention to problems in society.
My Church is one that lives on the liberating joyous news of Christ. It is a merciful community, which brings hope. It carries global responsibility for those in distress.
2. Yes, I would. If two people feel from the depths of their conscience that they are homosexual, I do not have the right to question their truth.
Sexual identity is not significant from the point of view of proclaiming the Gospel.
3. Maintaining dialogue with different national groups: the Church should seek to influence the foundation of values of decisions. The Church and its employees should be easy to approach, so that the threshold for leaving the Church would become higher.
The Church should lighten its structures and give lay people room to use their skills.
HS evaluation: The Bishop of Oulu is somewhat unexpectedly being overshadowed by the other candidates, because he does not sufficiently distinguish himself from the others.
Bishop Kari Mäkinen
1. A meaningful church puts in understandable language both the tradition of faith and the everyday reality of people, and the deep questions of life.
That is the kind of church I want to build, and it has room for faith which is faltering and fumbling or inquisitive and challenging.
2. Yes, if the other criteria for ordination are met. Living in a registered civil union is not an impediment to posts in the Church.
3. The most serious challenges stem from societal and cultural changes. One is greater multiculturalism, and the emergence of more religions. It challenges the Church to engage in dialogue, and to defend tolerance.
Another is that of giving up a vision of the future based on economic prosperity and its growth. Global responsibility, the sustainability of the environment and economic development require changes in the entire lifestyle.
The third is linked with the strengthening of market-driven publicity and the ideology of consumption.
How to be involved as a church in reality in a way that faith and life do not become adventure products?
HS evaluation: Considered somewhat aloof, the Bishop of Turku offers sacred profundity instead of locked opinions. He was the favourite candidate in a poll taken among clergy.
Vicar Jouni Lehikoinen
1. The Church should be boldly brought into the midst of the people. It would find its place as an important influential force in society, and would be heard.
The Church would clearly take on the role of a helper alongside those who are less well off, and would not hide in the shadows of offices.
2. I would talk seriously with a theologian living in a civil union why he or she would want to work for a church, which on the basis of its message will not bless a registered civil union.
3. Humanity must take centre stage, not bureaucracy, and not monetary investment activities.
Now it is time to drop fancy talk and focus on dealing with people.
The Church needs to show to young people who are leaving the Church in great numbers, that it has meaning. Stabilising the economy is a great challenge.
HS evaluation: The Vicar of St. Michael’s congregation in Turku gained notoriety, when his congregation offered sanctuary to asylum seekers refused permission to stay in Finland. Not likely to win the post of Archbishop.
Director Seppo Rissanen of the Finnish Missionary Society
1. The Church is for taking care of spiritual needs.
A person who is a member of the Church has the possibility to influence how the Church responds to expectations that it confronts.
Through mediation of the Church we participate in helping neighbours both near and far.
2. The requirement for ordination to the ministry is suitability for the work of a minister. A registered civil union, or the lack of it, is not a criterion for such evaluation.
3. Adapting Church activities and finances to changes in the structure of its membership.
The arrival of immigrants in a congregation is one change. For this reason as well, the Church should work for the implementation of equality.
HS evaluation: The speciality of the director of the Finnish Missionary Society is Islam, in which he wrote his doctoral dissertation. He has also done missionary work in Egypt. He could be a top contender.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 14.2.2010
More on this subject:
 Polarised Lutheran Church seeks new referee between reformists and conservatives
KATJA KUOKKANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
katja.kuokkanen@hs.fi
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