Eight of Denmark’s ten bishops today handed over the ritual they are proposing to meet Parliament’s decision last week that homosexual couples can be married in church in the same way as heterosexual couples.

The eight bishops – of Haderslev, Aalborg, Ribe, Odense, Roskilde, Aarhus, Viborg and Copenhagen – handed their proposal to Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs Manu Sareen Monday.

Two bishops – Elsinore and Lolland-Falster - declined to take part in the process.

“It looks good. This has been a difficult task because it is no secret that there have been theological disagreements. But they have managed nonetheless,” says Sareen.

The proposal excludes several biblical texts – such as that of Genesis account of creation. Instead the bishops have provided some texts that vicars of the state Evangelical-Lutheran Church may use, although they may also use other texts that they find more fitting.

Concepts such as ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ have been eliminated from the text and replaced with ‘spouse’.

The bishops, who published their thoughts in Jyllands-Posten today, make no bones of the fact that the task of producing their two proposals – one for a marriage ritual and another for a blessing ritual – has not been an easy one.

“We believe that the state church has a duty to help homosexual couples to live together in fidelity and love by giving God’s blessing to their life together in an ecclesiastical ceremony, using an authorised ritual that gives homosexual couples the right to have such a ceremony in their parish church,” the bishops write.

Apart from the two bishops who have not agreed to take part in the process, there have also been differences among the bishops who did, in connection with Parliament’s decision last week. The decision will enable the first homosexual couples to be married in church on June 15.

The bishops say that they have wanted to find “consensus on an issue upon which there are strong theological, cultural and emotional views. We are aware that parts of the state church find the issue of homosexual marriage to be such a central theological issue that their connection to the Church is being challenged”.

As a result, the bishops make it clear that it is up to the individual vicar to decide whether he or she is prepared to marry or bless homosexual couples.

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