Kvinnliga Församlingsledare Då och Nu En litteraturstudie om ämbetsfrågan i Svenska kyrkan

Abstract

For almost a century the debate about women as ordained servants in the Church of Sweden has raged on and on. The decision to open up the priesthood for both genders in 1958 was a milestone in the women’s liberation movement as well as it marks an important time in the church history. The debate has mainly been about how to interpret scripture, who has the right to do so, and so on. Feminist theology has become one way in recent decades to paint a wider and more nuanced picture of history and how to interpret the texts often used to repress women. This essay surveys some of the steps towards that decision, as well as it paints a rough picture of what leadership among women in the church could involve before ordination became an option. It also looks to discuss the situation today and the years leading up to present time. Even though women have had a chance to become priests in the Church of Sweden for many decades, there are still cases of discrimination occurring, both on and off the record. The diocese of Göteborg is the main focus used in the later part of the essay, and is also focused on in the sixties for its rich part in the debate against ordaining women as priests. Priests like Bo Giertz and Bertil Gärtner were from the diocese and together with professor Anton Fridrichsen they make up a large part of the representation of who was against. The arguments pro ordaining women are mainly from Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenzas theology on women in the early church as well as Annika Borg.