World’s First Lesbian Bishop Calls for Church to Remove Crosses, to Install Muslim Prayer Space [Bre

World’s First Lesbian Bishop Calls for Church to Remove Crosses, to Install Muslim Prayer Space




The Bishop of Stockholm has proposed a church in her diocese remove all signs of the cross and put down markings showing the direction to Mecca for the benefit of Muslim worshippers.

Eva Brunne, who was made the world’s first openly lesbian bishop by the church of Sweden in 2009, and has a young son with her wife and fellow lesbian priest Gunilla Linden, made the suggestion to make those of other faiths more welcome.

The church targeted is the Seamen’s mission church in Stockholm’s eastern dockyards. The Bishop held a meeting there this year and challenged the priest to explain what he’d do if a ship’s crew came into port who weren’t Christian but wanted to pray.

Calling Muslim guests to the church “angels“, the Bishop later took to her official blog to explain that removing Christian symbols from the church and preparing the building for Muslim prayer doesn’t make a priest any less a defender of the faith. Rather, to do any less would make one “stingy towards people of other faiths”.

The bishop insisted this wasn’t an issue, after all airports and hospitals already had multi-faith prayer rooms, and converting the dockyard church would only bring it up to speed. Regardless, the announcement has aroused protest.

Father Patrik Pettersson, one of the priests in her diocese and active in the same parish as the Seaman’s mission church has hit back in a blog of his own, complaining there is no way you could equate a consecrated church with a prayer room, remarking “I should have thought a bishop would be able to tell the difference”.

Calling the bishop’s words “theologically unthinking”, he asked what was to be done with crucifixes screwed to the walls, and heavy items such as baptismal fonts.

“Ignoring the rhetorical murmuring”, Pettersson wrote: “The only argument bishop Eva really put forward in support of her view is ‘hospitality’… How do you respond to that? Not much of a basis for discussion, as one colleague put it. The theological, ecclesiological, pastoral and working issues are left untouched”.

The actual priest at the Seaman’s mission was left nonplussed by the comments of the Bishop when contacted by Dagen.se for comment.

As an independent mission the church operates outside of the diocese, and so the bishop has no authority there, a fact reflected by the response of the church director who said the bishop’s words were her business alone.

When asked whether she would be removing the cross from her church, Kiki Wetterberg responded: “I have no problem with Muslim or Hindu sailors coming here and praying. But I believe that we are a Christian church, so we keep the symbols. If I visit a mosque I do not ask them to take down their symbols. It’s my choice to go in there”.


Click here for the rest of the article:
https://www.breitbart.com/london/20...h-remove-crosses-install-muslim-prayer-space/

 

There have always been tares among the wheat. There have been heretics and deceivers in the church since the Day of Pentecost. It had to happen sooner or later. As soon as women were ordained, it was inevitable that some of them would behave just as wickedly as some ordained men have over the last 2 millennia. Such a shame - but that is human nature, isn't it.

"We have all erred and strayed from God's ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against God's holy laws. We have left undone those things which we aught to have done; and we have done those things which we aught not to have done; and there is no health in us."

It is with some relief however that up to now there has not been a case of a female deacon, priest or bishop accused and found guilty of or aiding and abetting, child abuse and sexual perversion like far too many male clerics have been.
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I feel there is something 'back to front' in this Bishop's reasoning.

I have visited a mosque and out of respect for Muslim sensibility I removed my shoes, (no less a requirement than God expected of Moses, so there is scriptural precedent for the practice, and since Muslims claim to be monotheists, I took my shoes of in respect for the God I know, not necessarily the one they think they know). What I did was merely an expression of good manners in respect of their convention.

Muslims, if they wish to enter a church, should remove their head covering if male and don a head covering if female, (Christian women do not need to do this, because we are all one in Christ Jesus), but Muslim women I think would need to, because it is required of them by their faith and to go bare headed would therefore be disrespectful to the One and only God, which they claim to faithfully serve.

It is not appropriate for a guest to 'rearrange the furniture' in the house of the host, and it is not incumbent on a host to know and pander to every scruple of their guest, so as to remove from the host's house anything which might inadvertently offend.

Thus the furnishings in the church should remain as they are, but if possible, with Christian hospitality, (for we might entertain angels unawares Heb.13:2), a separate prayer room should be provided for Muslims which contains nothing which might offend their sensibilities.
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Lesbian, straight, poly, or Martian, it's a terrible idea.

Really nothing more to say.

I say that because I am against the idea, not her. I don't know her, know nothing of her, and can make a stronger argument against the idea by leaving her out of it.

You consecrate a Muslim prayer space and the Muslin group will howl that the Christian space must come down if they ever even think of even moving the space. Islam does not go back. It advances. Churches turned into mosques are "claimed eternally".

 

Gah!!

Amen!

 

We are called to be gracious. We are also called to Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.​

 

There should have been a comma between faith and and, (even though and is a conjunction). Otherwise the sentence seems ambiguous. So:

but Muslim women I think would need to, (cover their head), because it is required of them by their faith, (comma) and to go bare headed would therefore be disrespectful to the One and only God, which they claim to faithfully serve.

Sorry about that omission folks.

I think it worth pointing out that the 'church' in question is actually a 'mission' to seamen. Presumably it might also be an outreach to Muslim sailors, if it was staffed by sufficiently understanding Christians, robust enough in the Christian faith to deal with the kind of issues which might crop up. We should not turn down opportunities to make bridges and enlighten those who sit in darkness. Lk.1:79.
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I take your point but:

What was once an Ottoman imperial mosque, is now a museum.

They Muslims seem to have a funny idea of "eternally". We Christians seem to think it lasts a bit longer than 1453 years. A long time, for sure, but not eternally, also for sure.
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Yeah...that's not settled . Only Ataturk could pull that off.

Not by a long shot. Not if Erdogan gets his way.

Here is another.

That all said, is said mission not still a church? A church is a church, and as Boltoph said, we are to be gracious, but also bear witness for Christ .

 

Absolutely, though not at all easy with those who are utterly convinced they are right and you are utterly wrong. Bigots take an awful lot of convincing.
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Absolutely true.
No disagreement there.

 

She isn't so much tare as wolf dressed as a sheep.

 

This story is a few years old. I wonder what ever came of it.
Both links to the church and her blog are dead.

 

https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/stockholmsstift