Remember Neuhaus' Law?

Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed.... the prophetic words of +Richard John Neuhaus...  In this case the venue is Sweden.  The Mission Province is a conservative movement attempting to provide a balance against the pervasive secularism that is both inside and outside the Swedish Church (Lutheran at least in name).

Strange thing, though, is that at the same time a female priestess was not reprimanded for declaring in the Church of Sweden's official newspaper that the fall was not a fall, sin has not brought the curse of death upon the world, there is no need of any atonement talk or a Savior, for that matter, and, the whole idea of sacrifice is repugnant to the modern mind...

Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed....

Read it and weep....(in Swedish, a pdf of the decree)
Read it and weep... (in Swedish the column of the unbelieving priestess)

Church of Sweden threatens to defrock pastors who cooperate with the Mission Province

 

On February 20, the Consistory (domkapitlet) of the Church of Sweden's Gothenburg Diocese issued a decree warning "all pastors in Gothenburg Diocese" against conducting services or administering other "ecclesiastical acts" (e.g. weddings, funerals, baptisms) in conjunction with Mission Province congregations or koinonias (worshiping fellowships: koinonias are typically composed of persons who are still members of a CoS congregation, but who seek more Confessional worship and teaching).

 

The Consistory declares that such cooperation would constitute a breach of ordination vows that may be judged so serious as to require that the pastor (or deacon) be "defrocked" (authorization to act as a pastor in CoS be revoked).  The Mission Province is specifically singled out by name, and is the only church body targeted.

 On the other hand, the Consistory specifically states that its pastors are authorized to conduct services or ecclesiastical acts in conjunction with member churches of the Lutheran World Federation, the Methodist Church in Sweden, member churches of the Porvoo Communion, and the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).

 In June 2011, on the other hand, the Consistory decided not to defrock Ulla Karlsson, a female pastor who had published a column in the Church of Sweden newspaper during Lent.  The column directly attacked basic Christian doctrine, declaring inter alia, There is no fallen creation and therefore the whole doctrine of the atonement is irrational! Throw out all the talk about sin, guilt, shame, blood, slaughtered lambs and other horrors! It has no place in modern times, among enlightened people!

 

The Consistory placed this pastor on probation, but did not find her to have committed a serious "breach of ordination vows" to be , or to be "in conflict with the Church of Sweden's faith, confession and doctrine."  She was not defrocked.  Participaing in a Mission Province koinonia service, however, is now declared such a serious breach that it is grounds for being defrocked.