Monday 24 May 2010

Not just Abba, Ikea and 'free-schools' then

An extraordinary story from Sweden where the Established (Lutheran) Church has condemned a princess's marriage plans for wanting to be "given away" by her father.
Full story here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/7750368/Swedish-princess-emulating-sexist-British-tradition-of-giving-bride-away.html
As we know from their other ecclesiastical "developments," the Swedes could certain teach our own beloved Anglo-Saxon liberals (and these days for all intents and purposes culturally that includes the Celtic element as well - sorry, chaps) a thing or two about radical revisionism. Why do you think Porvoo has been so popular among establishment Anglicans? I'm very glad that when the Church in Wales' Governing Body, meeting then at Lampeter, ratified nem con that particular doctrinally compromising piece of pan-protestant triumphalism, I was eating an ice cream on the beach at nearby Aberaeron. It was a distinctly passive form of protest, but satisfying at the time.
The head of the Swedish State Church, Archbishop Anders Wejryd, has recently said:
"Being given away is a new phenomenon which occasionally occurs in the Church of Sweden. I usually advise against it, as our marriage ceremony is so clear on the subject of the spouses' equality. The couple know where I stand on this matter," he said.
And, obviously, have taken a great deal of notice.
But lots of things are not 'traditional' in Sweden, of course, which historically is far from the cuddly, permissive, social democratic paradise of popular myth. State sponsored (and national church supported) eugenics programmes anyone? Shh! That was a while ago.
Perhaps what I really mean is that, unlike in classically 'liberal' forms of democracy, an obsessive degree of government regulation and a sinister eagerness for social conformity are  merely necessary prerequisites for the flourishing of social democracy anywhere at all. Or have the last thirteen years got to me?

1 comment:

  1. In Wales, as in some other parts of the UK, for 'swede' read 'turnip' and for 'turnip' read 'swede'.
    The position of the Established Church in that liberal country makes more sense if the "turnip", as Black Adder would have it, has no novelty for the princess.

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