Danish Lutherans Consider Blessing Same-Sex Unions

A committee of the Church of Denmark (Lutheran) has concluded that the church may want to develop blessings of same-sex unions. The Church of Denmark's bishops set up the committee after homosexual members of the church asked that such a blessing be developed. Since 1989, Denmark has allowed two persons of the same sex to enter into a registered partnership which allows them similar legal rights to marriage.

The committee announced in late May that the Bible's statements against homosexuality were "culturally conditioned," and that no moral reasons exist to condemn homosexuality. The committee said that registered partnerships were different from marriage, which occurs between a man and a woman, but that the church may wish to develop a ritual for this important "transitional situation" in the lives of its homosexual members.