Egalitarian Sweden's Lutheran national church will debate this week the threat of a schism by pastors opposed to women priests, more than 40 years after they were first ordained, and gays' rights to be married in church.
Like Anglican colleagues angered by plans for a gay bishop in the United States who are seeking help from more orthodox African bishops, Sweden's Lutheran rebels have found a sponsor in the form of Kenya's senior Lutheran Bishop Walter Obare.
''We want to be faithful to the original Gospel and teachings of Jesus Christ as a true man and true God,'' Bengt Birgersson, head of the ''Mission Province'' rebel group of pastors. ''We asked the Kenyan Lutherans to accept us as their mission province so that through us they can try to evangelize Sweden again.''
The Anglican Church weathered a meeting last week avoiding, at least for now, any formal rift over homosexual clergy and the role of women in the church.
The outcome of the Swedish Church synod starting on Tuesday seemed a foregone conclusion -- censure of 25 rebels hoping to ordain their own bishop in December to form a diocese without women pastors, and a deferred decision on gay marriages.
Most native Swedes are baptised, married and buried in the church but rarely darken its doorway in between. One percent are estimated to attend church regularly, making Sweden one of the world's most secular societies. The church can ill afford a row about sexuality in a society where equality is the new dogma.
''When people who aren't members of our church see Birgersson talking on TV they say 'I can't be a member of a church where he is a priest','' said senior Stockholm pastor Eva Brunne.
Two of Sweden's 13 bishops are women -- in Stockholm and the university town of Lund. Less than a fifth of pastors are women and numbers are down as many women find it tough to mix the ministry and motherhood, said Brunne.
The Swedish Church -- formed soon after German cleric Martin Luther split with Roman Catholicism in the 16th century starting the Reformation -- ordained its first women priests in 1960.
''We have women pastors -- end of discussion,'' said Eva Rollgard, spokeswoman for Archbishop KG Hammar. If the rebels ordained their own bishops, they excludde themselves.
''They cannot belong to two churches at once.''
Birgersson, a 57-year-old with 33 years as a pastor, told Reuters he was sorry at the prospect of being defrocked.
He blamed the ''catastrophe'' of Sweden's empty church pews on a church establishment that had become too worldly and liberal during its long co-existence with predominantly leftist governments until church and state were split three years ago.
''The church became more and more liberal. When it separated from the state it was already separated from the word of God,'' he said. ''Too many pastors have nothing to say that is really from God which could help people in their existential needs.''
Responding to Brunne's argument that women and gays find it easier to ''identify with'' a pastor reflecting their sexuality -- the church also permits gay ministers -- Birgersson said:
''Jesus called male apostles. If you begin to change what is written in the Word of God, if you change small things, then you also begin to change the centre of it.''