Lutheran Lamentation

[Matt16_18]

Is the Lutheran Church of Sweden in its final death throes?

A Grief Observed- On Being a Priest in a Dying ChurchAm I sick and tired of being a priest (as I who have Catholic preferences would say) or pastor (as others of a more Protestant turn of mind rather would have it) in a church, which may no longer be a real church, infiltrated and occupied as it is by leftist church politicians and liberal revisionists. Yes!

… One Sunday in the Spring of 1960 some churchgoers after the service told me that this was a black day, a day of grievance for the Church of Sweden. I did not know why, and when they told me that three ladies were being ordained priests that Sunday, I simply did not understand the point. So what! I knew that some of my High Church friends were against the ordination of women and told me that is would a disaster for the Church. The reform was presented as one of church order and not one of doctrine, and its aim was, as it was said by its advocates, to reach out to people alienated from the church. Only later did I realize what had really happened at the Sunday. Gradually, I also realized that those who took their Christian faith most seriously were those who opposed the novelty. The flavour and scent which I had learnt to recognize was simply more detectable around and among these people. As a student still in the Gymnasium, I attended Bible studies, in which ordinary parish priests occasionally stated their reasons for being against the reform. If I remember correctly, they predicted that in the long run there would not only be ordained women, but this reform would lead to a different view of the Word of God and hence God´s revelation.

Now, they said, man was in command of the Bible, free to interpret it the way he, she or the spirit of the times wanted, and as a consequence of this, there would be a new understanding of the priesthood to begin with. They predicted that insolubility of marriage would wane with a new understanding of marriage and what it meant to be a man and a women, there would be a new way of looking at the Creation and the order given in it, a new way of understanding human sexuality, that same-sex relationships in the end would be accepted, and there would even be blessings of same-sex relationships, marriages, and as the crowning event: the understanding of God the Father would be replaced by God the Mother. It sounded like some dystopic theological science fiction …

 

[T.More]

Where di you get this? I would like to get the whole quote. Thanks

 

[Matt16_18]

T. More:

Where did you get this? I would like to get the whole quote. Thanks

It is a quote from the article that I hyperlinked in the opening post of this thread. Is my hyperlink not working?

I was hoping to discuss further what this Lutheran priest has written.

 

[T.More]

I missed the link, thanks. It is working fine.

 

[Matt16_18]

“A law against defamation or incitement to hatred against homosexuals has also been passed …”Kvinnoprästmotståndare - opponent of the ordination of women–is still one of the worst things you can say about a person in Sweden. … I have witnessed how the Swedish Church slowly and gradually has changed with small but constant steps. Some changes have been for the better, at least in the beginning: better liturgies, some new good hymns, progress in ecumenical dialogues especially with the Roman Catholic Church. But there has also been the continued progression of tearing down the classical Christian faith, moral and praxis. The other day in the mail I got a copy of the revised Prayerbook with the inclusive language purged Collect Prayers, which are to be used mandatorily from Advent this year. Almost gone are all Lord, King, Father, Son, Almighty, heavenly, everlasting, holy—everything that is considered patriarchal, sexist, non egalitarian, i.e., a great part of the ordinary Biblical language. The old way of addressing the Holy Ghost has been replaced by a wording that can be interpreted in a feminine way. In the Mass book there are already prayers in which God is addressed both as Father and Mother.

Thirteen years, ago when I returned after a one month´s trip to Canada and the U.S., I met with the Archbishop, Dr. Bertil Werkström, at his office to report to him what I had observed and experienced. I told him about the progress in Ecumenism, about practical cooperation between Lutherans and Catholics, something which really interested him as he soon was going to meet the Pope when he was visiting Uppsala during his Scandinavian trip. I also told him about the Gay and Lesbian agenda, about Feminism and about Inclusive Language being in my view the verbal and conceptual crowbar with the help of which the traditional Christian faith could be broken up. …

Some years ago an openly Lesbian photographer, Elisbeth Olsson, exhibited her photographs in the Cathedral on large screens. People were shocked by seeing naked bodies in the church. I did not attend the exhibition, and even if I had, the disply of a naked body per se in a church building would not have offended me. What God has created is never obscene in itself. It depends upon what one makes of the nakedness and how it is presented. It was only when a I saw a representation of Last Supper with Jesus in the middle with high heeled ladies shoes visible under the table, surrounded by leather - and chain-clad men of various fashions and styles, that I reacted. I did not mind the company, I did not mind Jesus being depicted the way he was (except for the red shoes) identifying with sinners, but once I realized what he held in his right hand, the message hit me with full force. Jesus did not hold a piece of bread in his hand. He held a powder puff. The message was not that his body was to be broken on the cross as the bread was broken with and for these people; what he held in his hand was the emblem of a self-referring Narcissism - looking himself in the mirror powdering his cheeks in order to please the onlookers as a sexual object. He was not the imago Dei, the loving One, the Original, after whom people around that table should be fashioned. He was nothing but Man trapped in his own fashionable image, defined by others, an object of desire in the eyes of others like him.

When the exhibition took place, the emblematic ideological significance of this action was obvious. The Church has always been one of the most powerful moral transmitters against practiced homosexual relationships, and conquering the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of the National Swedish Church and transmitting the lesbitransgay message, would be the ultimate victory for the proponents of this agenda. The battle, however did not stop there; the campaign went on successfully. Parliament is now discussing a new gender neutral marriage legislation, and there is also a legal fight for the rights of homosexuals couples to adopt children. A law against defamation or incitement to hatred against homosexuals has also been passed, and there is now an ombudsman (HomO), who is supervising and even inspecting the observance of this law, not least among the churches and religious groups.

A Grief Observed- On Being a Priest in a Dying Church