quote:

---

(Stockholm) The Church of Sweden is expected to endorse a proposal to create a liturgy for the blessing of same-sex unions.

The official church in the Scandinavian country will make a final decision later this month when the full Church Assembly meets, but the proposal has already won the endorsement of the powerful Liturgical Committee.

To receive the blessing service a couple would have to have signed a civil partnership agreement. Although Sweden does not permit same-sex marriage it has a form of civil unions where couples sign an official registry. They are then accorded many, but not all of the rights of a civil marriage.

Not all members of the committee are in favor of the blessings. One priest, Alve Svensson, said that it would rock the foundation of the church.

"This is down to our conviction that homosexuality, when practiced, contravenes the New Testament," he told church paper Kyrkans Tidning.

LGBT rights groups are also unhappy. They would have liked the church to have gone further and offer regular wedding services to same-sex couples.

---

[ 14 October 2005: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]