Archbishop Jukka Paarma, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, on Wednesday urged priests belonging to the controversial Luther foundation to consider whether or not they wish to continue working under the church and adhere to its ground rules and regulations.
In an interview for the Finnish News Agency (STT), Archbishop Paarma does not however wish to comment on proposals that the foundation - which is opposed to female clergy, for example - should form an organisation of their own.
Nevertheless, his church does not stand in the way of the establishment of a new religious body.
The primate particularly frowns upon this spring's incident where two Luther foundation priests asked Eero Huovinen, Bishop of Helsinki, not to attend a communion in a mass organised by the foundation because the bishop backs the current policy of the ordination of women.
Some 84 per cent of Finns are members of the Evengelical Lutheran Church.