Date: Thu, 16 Feb 1995 20:22:12 +0100
From: bjarne.skov@media.uio.no (Bjarne Skov)

As I promised yesterday, I bring more details of the decisions of the
work-group of the State (Lutheran) Church of Norway:

Please bear in mind that what is written below is to be seen as an excerpt
of the newspaper "Aftenposten"s coverage of the story with only a couple of
personal reflections.
Too extensive quoting of this (especially in the media) will therefore
easily violate copyright laws - so please show some wisdom!

In Aftenposten's evening issue on Wednesday 15 February, they brought the
issue on top of the first page, in huge letters:
"Church says yes to homosexuals", and they gave an outline of the paper
which the work group has elaborated on this topic on behalf of the Bishop
Meeting.

On page two of the newspaper, more than half the page is devoted to the
topic, and commentary is given by people who oppose, and by people who
rejoice.  The status of the document is, however, that it is not yet
binding for anyone, until the Bishop Meeting itself has discussed,
evaluated and voted on it, which will be sometime in April this year.

The group consisted of eight persons, two of which, professor in theology
Halvor Moxness and Mr. Karol Svanoe, have been representatives of the Gay
and Lesbian Organisation in Norway (LLH).  There have been differing
degrees of agreement within the group, but a majority has argued for the
following points:

- The church should acknowledge same-sex partnerships, and be willing to
employ homosexuals who live in a registered partnership.

- Partnership should not be confused with marriage, there are significant
differences that must be respected. "However it should not be overlooked
that same-sex partnerships face the same challenges as in marriage to show
responsibility, to give love and faithfulness, and live commitedly with
each other".

- The group rejects that homosexual partners should be given the right to
adopt children, or to artificial insemination, with the argument that
children should be given as normal an environment to grow up in as
possible.  An explanatory commentary and reservation to this point from
Moxness and Svanoe says that gay and lesbian partnerships are not morally
less valuable and so their homes are not unsuitable as a home for a child.
However, they want further discussions before the Church makes official
decisions on this particular topic.

- There will be no ritual parallel to the marriage ceremony in Church
liturgy, but the majority of the group sees it as a natural thing if some
kind of church ceremony could accompany the registering of a same-sex
partnership.

Of course this paper will be subject to fierce discussions, both inside and
outside the church (there is a minority in the group consisting of what we
could call fundamentalist theologists that were against the above
conclusions, and who insist that job positions in the church should be held
by heterosexuals only) - and Christian fundamentalists have already started
their crusade...one of the opponents in the newspaper article, Secretary
General of "The Norwegian Lutheran Society of the Inner Mission" says that
if the bishops do not stand together on "what is God's word" or the "view
of the Church" (meaning the _present_ view of the church) a dramatic
situation will arise.







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