The Prime Minster of Norway has offered her support to allowing same-sex couples to marry in churches.
Proposals to introduce a marriage liturgy for gay couples were voted down at the start of the Church of Norway’s national synod last week, with 64 of 115 votes against and 51 in favour.
Erna Solberg said she supports same-sex church weddings, but did say that the Church should be allowed to make the decision itself.
“Personally, I believe that gays should be allowed to marry in church,” Solberg, the leader of the Norwegian Conservative Party said on Wednesday.
“This is the way I, as a church member, want the church to go.”
She did go on to say she respected the decision of the synod to not take up a motion to allow it.
“We have separated the church and the state, and so I have to respect that it is the church who makes these decisions,” she said.
Norway legalised same-sex marriage in 2008.
Last Friday, the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England, defended his Church’s decision to block clergy from marrying gay couples in England and Wales by saying Anglicans in Africa could be attacked or killed as a result.
by Joseph Patrick McCormick
Source – PinkNews
