not too much

On 27 October 2005, the Church Assembly (Kyrkomötet) of the Church of Sweden decided that a special order of service for the blessing of a registered partnership should be introduced. Registered partnerships include same-sex partnerships. The Church's Central Board has been commissioned to produce the new order of service, expected to be introduced this year 2006. The decisions of the Swedish draw on two documents from its Theological Committee, Homosexuals in the Church (2002) and Life Together (2005).

The Synod also resolved that:

• Any condemnation of the homosexual person is ruled out and so is the attachment of guilt to the homosexual orientation.
• The church should work actively to oppose discrimination of people because of their sexual orientation.
• The Church of Sweden ought not to sanction or to run any organised work aimed at "curing" homosexual people of their orientation.
• A homosexual orientation, or living in partnership, is not a motivation for denying anyone ordination to service in the church.

From Confessing Reader I learn that, as part its our relationship with the Church of Sweden under the Porvoo Common Statement, the Faith and Order Advisory Group of the Church of England has commented on the new policy.

The writers of the English response, the Revd Canon Professor Oliver O'Donovan and the Revd Dr Jeremy Morris, delineate clearly and fairly the difficulties posed to ecumenical relations by the respective decisions of the English and Swedish churches concerning homosexuality.

But I can't help but feel that this is tinkering at the margins. What is essentially at stake in the everlasting debate on homosexuality is the way we receive, interpret and apply scripture and tradition; the 'question of authority', as ARCIC entitled it in another context. Unless and until we sit down and work long, hard, and prayerfully on the use-of-scripture question, we have no hope of agreement on a matter such as homosexuality.

Actually, I doubt that the churches could ever agree on the use-of-scripture question (did someone say 'ecumenical council'?). Certainly it could take centuries. But that is where the challenge lies. And in any case, agreement on homosexuality in isolation will take a hundred years at least, in my view.

The other possibility is simply to relax and allow each other to listen to the Spirit as best we may.

We could even try both.

In the meantime, do we or do we not respect each other as fully brothers and sisters in Christ?