Patriarchate of Constantinople supports the Russian Orthodox Church Holy Synod statement concerning the Lutheran Church of Sweden

His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomaios of Constantinople has sent a letter to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Russia, expressing agreement with the assessment given by the Russian Orthodox Church Holy Synod on December 27, 2005, to the decision of the Lutheran Church of Sweden to bless the so-called ‘same-sex unions’.

‘By no means we approve but rather deplore the above-mentioned decision of the Church of Sweden’, the primate of the Church of Constantinople stated in his letter. He also expressed hope that the Church of Sweden would ‘come to senses and rectify its erroneous decision as contradicting the will of God and the dogmatic teaching and truth of our Orthodox Church and the Christian ethics’.

At the same time, His Holiness Bartholomaios stated that the Patriarchate of Constantinople would continue its dialogue with the Lutheran Church of Sweden ‘on social and theological level’.