ABSTRACT
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 supporting equality can be consistent with the churches’ creeds and embrace female clergy and blessings of gay marriages. However, the church organizations struggle to keep their inner-church and inter-church unity on the matter of equality.
In this chapter, I compare the Church of England and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark, the Danish folk church, as I examine the churches’ reactions to the introduction of 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. As a part of the Anglican Communion, the Church of England has an added challenge, toiling to keep also the inter-church unity. The crucial point in both churches’ 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 in this chapter discusses the power distribution within the churches and if the power structure pulls these old societal churches in a more ecclesial direction.
