SWEDEN: Lesbian elected Lutheran bishop of Stockholm
Episcopal News Service. May 29, 2009 [052909-04]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
A female Lutheran pastor who is in a registered partnership with another woman was elected May 26 to be the next bishop of the Diocese of Stockholm in the Church of Sweden.
According to the diocese, Eva Brunne, 55, was elected by a vote of 413-365 over Hans Ulfvebrand in the second round of voting. A first round of voting by clergy of the diocese and an equal number of elected lay people was held in April. There are 13 dioceses in the Church of Sweden.
Brunne is due to succeed Bishop Caroline Krook, who in 1998 became the seventh bishop of the diocese, which is the youngest diocese of the Church of Sweden. Krook is retiring in November.
The diocesan announcement said that Brunne and her partner, Gunilla Linden, who is also ordained, have a three-year-old son. Their relationship received a church blessing, according to Ecumenical News International (ENI). Brunne is the first Church of Sweden bishop to live in a registered homosexual partnership, the Uppsala-headquartered church said. ENI reported that she is believed to be the first openly lesbian bishop in the world.
Sweden has allowed same-gender civil unions since 1995 and on May 1 of this year began recognizing same-gender marriages after the Swedish parliament passed a gender-neutral marriage law the month before.
The Church of Sweden, which offers a special blessing for same-sex couples, has faced criticism from some other Lutheran churches, particularly those in African countries.
In 2005, leaders of the Lutheran World Federation removed Kenyan Bishop Walter E. Obare Omwanza as an advisor to its main governing body, the LWF Council, after he consecrated a bishop from a breakaway Lutheran grouping in Sweden opposed to women priests and same-sex marriage.
"Once you have been baptized, no one can say you cannot be part of the Church because you are homo-, bi-, or transsexual," the website of the French periodical Tétu quoted Brunne as saying, ENI reported.
Various news and blog reports make mention of an appeal related to her election, and a Google-translated version of Brunne's post-election comments to a Swedish church newspapaer quotes her as saying "we know that the election is under appeal."
The Church of Sweden is a member of the Porvoo Communion, which groups the British and Irish Anglican churches and the Nordic and Baltic Lutheran churches that entered into a full communion agreement in 1992 to "share a common life in mission and service."
The churches that signed the agreement are the Evangelical Lutheran churches of Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, and the Anglican churches of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The Lusitanian Church in Portugal and the Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain -- both extra-provincial dioceses under the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury -- also signed onto the agreement. The Evangelical Lutheran churches of Denmark and Latvia have observer status.
The name Porvoo comes from the town in Finland where a joint celebration of Holy Communion was held after the formal signing of the agreement in Järvenpää.