Since days of yore, men are mostly seen being at the rudders of issues of the congregation as ministers. As the world advanced, the story also continued changing as females have additionally joined the ‘vessel’.
Presently, there are many countries around the globe with female priests but in Sweden, the females appear to have commanded the number of men in the priesthood.
They are more in the Church of Sweden. As per numbers released in July 2020, a sign that sexual orientation fairness has made tremendous steps since the first woman was appointed in Sweden in 1960.
The Lutheran establishment, which was the official Swedish state church until 2000, presently counts 1,533 women serving as ministers and 1,527 being men.
Shockingly, its ecclesiastical overseer and several other bishops are also women, with one of them who have served the clergy for as far back as three decades being Oberg Hansen.
She reminisce the massive discrimination she confronted when the first parish she was relegated to didn’t acknowledge her. It was a tough time for her.
In view of Sweden’s story of huge female priests, the European Institute for Gender Equality a year ago, positioned Sweden at the top of its yearly annual equality index, giving the country a score of 83.6 contrasted with a normal of 67.4 for the European Union in general.
Sweden’s course towards sexual orientation equality is shared across Scandinavia, with generally equivalent number of people serving in the ministry positions of the Church of Denmark, and women very much spoke to in the priesthood of the Church of Norway.
Some female clerics in Sweden have also helped push for the acknowledgment of women in the ministry but have additionally stressed that, they don’t believe the priesthood ought to turn into an overwhelmingly female calling.
Sweden’s congregation has some 5.8 million people, representing 57.7% of the country’s populace. That said, numerous seats are unfilled nowadays, and are bound to be involved by women.
According to some the female clerics, they believe during Jesus’ time, he went to stood up for equity for all classes and all sexual orientations, so it is the ideal opportunity for women to step forward to help in the sharing of the word.
