From: Hannele Lehtikuusi Subject: Finland, 17 March Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 17:58:38 +0200 (EET) Latest News/ Finland Hannele Lehtikuusi Chairperson SETA Via Dolorosa, an appeal beyond any limits drafted by the fundamentalist churches was handed to Mr. Hakamies, Minister of Justice on 12 March. The Minister accepted the appeal with friendly words. Later on, the news on the appeal told that thousands of signatures had been received (59,000 was a figure in the (for comparison it should be pointed out that there are some 5 million inhabitants in Finland). The wording of Via Dolorosa repeats the well known pattern of condemnation. The Finnish Lutheran church has taken a more cautious stand, and, Mrs Raija Sollamo, Dean of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Helsinki has openly defended the same-sex marriage. The TV and the press have mainly addressed this appeal and the way it was published as part of the internal discussion of the Christians and the church. The Finnish Organization for Sexual Equality, SETA has been happy with this turn, given that the actual issue is a secular / non-religious law bill, comparable to the law on the civil marriage. SETA feels that the churches, too, need to have a discussion within themselves with theological terms. The news on the publication of the appeal was fairly lame and, in the same connection the appeal by the People in Culture and Research (forwarded here earlier on), was mentioned, too.