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'Man and wife' will become 'lawfully wedded spouses'
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Church of Sweden will marry gay couples
The Synod of the Lutheran Church of Sweden voted this morning in favour of conducting weddings for same-sex couples, placing the country among the vanguard in this area of gay rights.
It is the culmination of June's proposal from the church's governing board and follows the legislation overwhelmingly voted for by parliament on May 1 granting Swedish same-sex couples the right to be legally married in religious or civil ceremonies.
In a statement, Asa Regner, head of the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education, said: "The Synod's decision takes a stance in favour of an inclusive view of people. Regardless of whether one is religious or not, this affects the entire social climate and the view of people's equal value."
The Church of Sweden, of which around 74% of Swedes are members, has since 2007 offered gay couples a religious blessing of their union, but today's vote will make it one of the first of the world's major churches to marry gay couples.
According to Sweden's English-language news website The Local, current church regulations for the ceremony would be unaltered apart from changing "man and wife" to "lawfully wedded spouses" when a gay couple gets married.
