As societies become more liberal and equal in terms of civil rights for women and homosexuals, they challenge the identities of the old national churches. Theological interpretations consistent with the churches’ creeds embrace female clergy and blessings of gay marriages. However, the church organisations struggle to keep inner-church and inter-church unity on the matter of equality.
In this chapter, I compare Church of England and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark, the Danish folk church, as I examine the churches’ reactions to same sex marriages. The formal structure of the state-church relationship and the internal power of the church parties influences the reactions of both churches, as they struggle to keep inner-church unity. Being part of the Anglican communion, Church of England has an added challenge, toiling to keep also the inter-church unity. The crucial point in both reactions is the question of making marriage equal. Both churches seem to accept same sex partnerships, perceiving these as not interfering with the theologies of the churches. The analysis discusses the power distribution within the churches, and how the power structure influences whether these old societal churches pull in a more ecclesial direction.
I work in a method combining Hegstad (2013), Percy (2010), and the wave of ecclesiology and ethnography (Leth-Nissen 2018). It applies the concepts of societal and ecclesial church (Woodhead forthcoming). Data for the analysis include qualitative source studies (2010-2016), quantitative data on church attendance and lay engagement in church.
Church of England reacted to civil same sex marriages in the way Woodhead (2016) predicted, increasing a clerical and authoritarian identity. The responses and briefings of the church show how the Church of England is pulling in an ecclesial direction and widening the gap between the British society and Church of England. The Danish folk church negotiated same sex marriages in church for decades, setting inner-church unity over the church-people relationship. Parliament functions as the formal Synod of the church and settled the matter by introducing same sex marriages in the church in 2012. The lengthy debate has most likely wounded the church’s relationship to the people.