It is a correspondance between the English bishops Christopher HIll and John Hind and the Swedish archbishop Anders Wejryd that has caught the media attention in Sweden.
The English bishops are critical to the proposal that homosexuals will have the right to have a church wedding. They write as follows in the letter (translated from a quote from SvD):
"The fact that the Church of Sweden bless homosexuals is problematic (...) what is proposed now appears to be a fundamental redefinition of the Christian doctrine for marriage and of the elementary Christian anthropology."
The background to the letter from the English bishops is a letter that archbishop Wejryd sent to the Anglican Church where he described the discussions in the Swedish Church on homosexual marriages.
This has led to a debate in the Swedish Christian circles. Today, Jan-Anders Ekelund and Berit Simonsson, two representants of ´Frimodig Kyrka write in SvD that the Church of Sweden should reconsider its plans to enforce homosexual marriage.
They continue to argue that the Swedish Church will be isolated if it push through the new policy of homosexual marriages. The reason for their worries is that the Church of England and the Church of Sweden is bound together in the so called ´Borgå community´. This means according to them that the Swedish Church should not ignore what the other churches in the community think about this.
Mr Ekelund and Ms Simonsson understand the critical letter from the English bishops. They write as follows:
"The purpose with the Borgå community is that churches will come closer to each other. Naturally the spirit of the agreement that in issues where there is unity, the consensus should continue. If a church has the intention of changing the doctrine where unity already exists, it should naturally convince the others that the new doctrine is based in the Holy Writ. This has not been done."
On the other side of the debate is Lars Gårdefeldt, priest and gay activist. He thinks that the Church of Sweden has been trying to tone down the letter from England.
- From the side of Church of Sweden they have tried to tone down the raw tone in this letter. But to tone down this is a violation of all homosexual members of the Church of Sweden, Mr. Gårdfeldt says to SvD.
Gårdefeldt continue by saying that if someone should cut the ties, it is the Church of Sweden. He says that the Church of Sweden should eagerly defend the homosexuals.
He continue to say that if there would be a break between the Church of Sweden and Chuch of England, it would not be because homosexuals are treated too good in Sweden but because they are treated too bad by the Anglican Church:
- They (the Anglican Church) demands from homosexuals that they will live a celibate life. They forced the only homosexual bishop to resign and they have not yet recognised female bishops, Gårdfeldt says to SvD.