Religion: Small War in Sweden

A pregnant woman minister, argued one antifeminist, would not bring a properly austere authority to the pulpit (replied the women: fat male ministers are hardly more inspiring). Other male supremacists somberly recounted the roles taken by priestesses (a distasteful word, sniffed the women ) in ancient orgiastic cults.

Occasion for the argument: the Church Meeting of the state Lutheran church of Sweden, considering a proposal to permit women ministers. Two years ago the Swedish Parliament recommended ordination of women (at the time, one diehard stormed that he would never confess* to a female because women were notoriously unable to hold their tongues).

But a fortnight ago when the Stockholm Church Meeting — 43 clergy, 57 lay members including 2 women — took a vote on the matter, the proposal was defeated by almost two to one.

Silence in Church? From Swedish women, accustomed to equality (only military service, the ministry and the governorship of counties still are banned to them), there came immediate and bitter reaction. By last week some 75 women — among them: 53-year-old Member of Parliament Sigrid Ekendahl, 47-year-old Agda Rossel. delegate to the U.N. Commission for Women’s Rights —had declared themselves no longer members of their church. (Since 1952 Swedes have been permitted to leave the state church merely by signing a form stating their intention.) Leader of the women’s protest was Esther Lutteman, 69, a clergyman’s widow and an outstanding Lutheran churchwoman, who denounced the church as too ceremonial, too institutional and, worst of all, too masculine.

Said she: “When I die I do not want a religious burial.”

Since Swedish women began seriously agitating for admission to the ministry in 1919, the core of opposition has been the older generation of clergymen who take literally Biblical injunctions against female equality, such as St. Paul’s in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: “Let your women-keep silence in the churches : for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience . . .” Women Theologians? Seeking to avoid an open split between the old guard and the church’s young, liberal pastors, ailing Archbishop Yngve Brilioth, primate of the state church, suggested that the Bible does not absolutely forbid women clergy men and that “I do not consider it unthinkable that the Swedish church will one day ordain women priests.” But he added that the admission of women ministers must come as a result of whole hearted approval by the clergy, not because of political pressure from Parliament. He questioned whether many of Sweden’s women wanted to become ministers anyway, noted that in Denmark, which has permitted women clergy since 1947, only four have been ordained (in the U.S., the Northern Presbyterians and the Methodists, among other denominations, have ordained women). Perhaps, said the archbishop, Sweden could follow the example of Finland, where women serve their churches as theologians, not as ministers.

Confession has always been a part of the Lutheran creed, though it is not mandatory.

High Church Lutherans in Scandinavia and Ger many practice it more frequently than Ameri can Lutherans. In the U.S. it usually takes the form of a private talk with the pastor rather than formal confession and absolution.