A month or so ago a leader of the Christian Democratic Party in Finland created a controversy by speaking out against the possibility of the Finnish Lutheran Church allowing for gay marriages to be blessed. The result was a wave a resignations of church memberships – at its peak reaching “hundreds an hour“.
Finnish bishops spoke out soon afterward asking that delegates to the coming church synod work to find a way to find a nuanced way to support gay and lesbian Finns. An article from last month says the bishops are calling for the Church to “come out” on the question. The Archbishop called for the Church to take a clear and unequivocal stance in support of gay and lesbian couples.
Yesterday the Finnish Synod passed a proposal that calls for the creation of a liturgical form that would allow same-sex couples to have their relationships honored by their churches:
“‘The proposal offers a positive opportunity to minister to church members who are sexual minorities,’ the General Synod, the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s highest administrative body, said in a statement.
The General Synod must now draw up a formula for a prayer that walks a fine doctrinal line, observers said.
Lutheran ministers will have the choice of performing the prayer with gay couples in a church, but it will not actually constitute a church’s blessing of the union itself, synod spokesman Marko Kailasmaa told AFP.”
From here.
It appears therefore that the church took this response because of the strong reaction among the laity to the government’s claim that the Church could make no space for LGBT couples in the pews.
The Finnish Church is party to the Porvoo Agreement. In fact one of the bishops mentioned above as calling for the church to support lgbt people is the Bishop of Provoo. The Church of England, also a party to the Porvoo Agreement and shares in the full life of the communion with the Finnish Church.