Iceland: First female bishop

Iceland’s first female bishop, Agnes M. Sigurðardóttir, was consecrated in Hallgrímskirkja, the cathedral of Reykjavik, on 24 June 2012. Sigurðardóttir was elected with 64.3 percent of votes in a second round of elections. She succeeds Karl Sigurbjörnsson, who retired at the end of June. The new bishop has worked with youth, as a parish pastor and as regional dean.

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) General Secretary Rev. Martin Junge has welcomed the installation of Bishop, as an affirmation of the leadership role women play in the church.
“We celebrate your ordination as a bishop in the memory of Jesus’ commissioning women disciples to become his followers and partaking in God’s mission to the world,” Junge said in a congratulatory greeting conveyed on behalf of the LWF by Bishop Jana Jeruma-Grinberga, Lutheran Church in Great Britain, at a reception following consecration service.

One of the main goals of the new bishop will be to attract more people to The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland, which has suffered losses in recent years. “We should do that with joy and interest, not just to raise the number, but because of the good message that we are entrusted with,” she said.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland has 247,245 members.

LWF 11.7.12
ENI 11.7.12
evl.fi 12.7.12



Finland: Gender-neutral marriage law in the making

Sweden and Norway have had gender-neutral marriages laws for some time now, and in June, Iceland joined them. The first to get married under the new law was Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, as I noted last week. We still wait for Denmark.
Now, the debate accelerates even in Finland, that oh, so often shows conservative tendencies. Justice Minister Tuija Brax (Green Party) says she hopes that the law will be a part of the negociations when a new government will be formed after next year's Parliamentary elections and that the law will be in place in 2012. Of the larger parties, only the agrarian Center Party hasn't taken sides yet. Only the conservative Christian Democrats and the populistic True Finns are against, and all other Parliamentary parties would accept a law of this nature - with varying degrees of enthusiasm, of course. These parties are the conservative National Coalition, the Social Democrats, the social liberal Swedish People's Party (that I represent), and the postcommunistic Leftist League; there are eight parties in the Finnish Parliament at the moment.

A gender-neutral marriage law would not change the rights of opposite-sex couples, but same-sex couples would gain the right to e.g. take a common surname and to adopt children from outside their families ("external adoption", as it is called). The present registration of partnerships gives some of the rights that marriage gives, e.g. inheritance, some tax breaks and internal adoption, i.e. the right to adopt the other partner's children.
As to getting married in church ... well, that's some way off in the main churches in Finland. The law in question would not compel the churches to marry same-sex couples. My personal view is, of course, that the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, where I serve, should start marrying all couples, but I'm afraid that still is a long way off. The Bishops' Council made a decision earlier this year that allows pastors to pray for same-sex couples, but not call it a blessing. This is, of course, a craven compromise. A comment in English here.

We'll have to wait and see what comes of all this. More disappointments, I fear.

Diplomatic problems for Iceland?

After intense public protests, the Icelandic conservative government folded last Monday, and a new center-left interim coalition government took office yesterday, with a view to general elections in April.
The new Prime Minister, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (66), is a Social Democrat, has been an MP since 1978 and was recently voted the most popular politician in Iceland. She is also a lesbian, and lives with journalist Jónína Leósdóttir, who became her civil partner in a ceremony in 2002. Sigurðardóttir was previously married to a man and has two sons.

I won't comment on the political or economic aspects of these proceedings - others have done so with much more insight than I have - but there is one question that I can't help wondering about.
She is said to be the first openly gay or lesbian person to become a head of government, not just in Iceland, but anywhere in the world. How will the world's homophobic nations react? I'm thinking of countries like Nigeria, Gambia, Iran, and all the others that I listed in a blog post last September.
How will they react? Will there be widespread protests in the streets of Damascus, Nicaraguan boycotts of Icelandic products, and burnings of the Icelandic flag in Medina? Will Tongan diplomatic personnel be recalled from Reykjavik? Or will everyone do the sensible thing and just ignore it, perhaps hoping that someone else will be elected in a few months?
I don't have the answer, but to my knowledge, no-one's even asked the question. We'll just have to see what happens, I suppose...

Sigurdardóttir Ready to Become Iceland's PM (IcelandReview 27.1.09)
Lesbian likely to be appointed Iceland interim PM (365gay 27.1.09)
Icelandic politician may become world's first lesbian Prime Minister (PinkNews 27.1.09)
Iceland set to appoint first openly gay woman as PM (AP through PageOneQ 28.1.09)
Iceland To Appoint First Lesbian Prime Minister (Box Turtle Bulletin 28.1.09)
Lesbisk statsminister (Per Westberg - Kyrkoordnaren 28.1.09)
Iceland interim government to take office on Sunday (Reuters 31.1.09)
Isländsk interimsregering formas (YLE Nyheter 31.1.09)
New Iceland govt eyes Sunday handover (Reuters 31.1.09)

Iceland celebrates!

On June 28, I got an e-mail:

Dear friends
Yesterday [27.6.08] was a double celebration for us here in Iceland. Samtökin 78, the National Queer Organization, celebrated it's 30th birthday with a big celebration at the Reykjavík art museum. On the same day, a law that allows religious denominations to register partnerships if they so wish, came into action. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland is the first state church in the world to allow its priests to perform partnership registrations according to an official ritual for such events, agreed on in the last pastoral Synod. Already one couple have registered their partnership using this ritual, which is legally binding as priests in the ELCI are representatives of the state in this matter. The ritual is based on the marriage ritual already in use with slight variation in text and form. The rituals have the same status within the official rituals of the ELCI although one is for registered partnership ("staðfest samvist") and the other for marriage ("hjónaband"). Next step is to have only one word for both marriage and registered partnership; hjónaband (marriage). I'm sure that will happen in the very near future. Already people in Iceland use the word marriage when referring to registered partnerships and it's been like that for many years. Both have exactly the same legal status in every way, only separated by the forementioned words.
Love to all of you from from the small island in the north
Grétar Einarsson

Good news, indeed!

I mentioned the process last year in the post Iceland: Church blesses gay partnerships (3.12.07). See also Discrimination against same sex couples ended (GayIce.is 31.5.08) and First Gay Couple in Iceland Marries in Church (Iceland Review 27.6.08). The Box Turtle Bulletin also reports 27.6.08.

Iceland: Church blesses gay partnerships

The general synod of the Church of Iceland voted in October to allow priests to validate cohabitations between two members of the same sex, IceNews Network reports (31.10.07). This makes the Icelandic church one of the most liberal in the world in this matter. The church now waits for the parliament to change the law.
Bishop Karl Sigurbjörnsson is satisfied with the outcome of the decision which is perhaps the first of its kind. Although there was disagreement on the issue, Sigurbjörnsson said the congregation was able to reach a compromise.
The church had long debated the definition of marriage. Some members of the synod believe that marriage is a holy union between any two individuals while others maintain that marriage is a holy union between individuals of opposite sex only. As a compromise, the church has not changed the traditional heterosexual definition of a marriage. However, the church did allow same-sex relationships to receive some validation from the church.

Earlier this year, the priest synod of the Church of Iceland voted against a proposal regarding legalizing same-sex marriage in Iceland by 64 votes to 22. The blogger MadPriest reports this, quoting the Iceland Review (which seems to experience some technical difficulties at present).
"I’m ashamed on behalf of the State Church - and I know many priests agree with me - for the fact that the fight for gay and lesbian rights did not go further at this conference," Rev. Bjarni Karlsson told Fréttabladid.
"The priests don’t own the church; that is not the way it is. The church belongs to Jesus Christ and the church is formed by every congregation the country. So although this was rejected in one election, it is not the end," Karlsson said. "I believe all people, also those against gay rights, realize that our community and the church will eventually reach the maturity to respect all people, regardless of their sexual orientation."

See also:
Iceland: Homosexuality Finds New Acceptance (IPS 30.11.05)