Church of Sweden Investigates Polyamory: Is Monogamy Necessary?
Sweden's former state church — with 5.4 million members and politically elected governing boards — has commissioned an official theological study into recognizing polyamorous relationships alongside traditional marriage.
- The Church of Sweden's central board commissioned cultural journalist Magnus Linton and theologian Karin Johannesson to examine whether Christian ethics require monogamy.
- Unlike most churches globally, the Church of Sweden is governed by political parties elected in national church elections, frequently aligning its doctrine with progressive state ideology.
- Internal critics warn the church is abandoning core biblical marriage doctrine to accommodate multi-partner relationship norms.
The Church of Sweden has compiled an overview of knowledge on LGBTQIA+ and polyamory, which will serve as the starting point for a multi-year theological project. The report raises the question of whether monogamy is a necessary part of Christian relationship ethics, or a norm that must be examined—just as other norms have been reviewed in the past.
The initiative comes from the 2024 Church Assembly. There, a motion was submitted regarding polyamory, asexuality, and the LGBTQIA concept, proposing that the church should support the entire concept, including polyamory.
The Church Assembly did not go down that path, but instead tasked the Church Council with continuing the theological work, with particular focus on polyamory.
The overview is written by Martin Langby, Doctor of Theology at Uppsala University, and was presented earlier in October on the Church of Sweden’s website.
The report does not provide an answer to the question of monogamy. Instead, it establishes that the question needs to be addressed openly and systematically.
Non-monogamous relationships should be explored
In the full report, Langby writes that the church needs to analyze whether values such as fidelity and responsibility ‘necessarily require sexual and romantic exclusivity.’
The church also needs to determine whether monogamy is an indispensable part of Christian ethics or ‘a historically strong but theologically reassessable norm.’
The report also asks if the church is prepared to scrutinize its relationship theology so thoroughly that ‘non-monogamous relationships too can be assessed on their own ethical grounds.’ Currently, the Church of Sweden does not have an official stance on polyamory.
Sara Björk, thematic administrator at the Church Office, describes the report as a beginning rather than a conclusion.
– This is not a report meant to provide all the answers. Rather, it is a starting point for more extensive work.
The wedding motion raises concern
The report comes as the church faces another sensitive issue. At the Church Assembly’s second session in Uppsala, November 16–18, members will address a motion regarding weddings and marriage.
The motion proposes that the church should have a unified view on marriage and that priests should no longer be allowed to refer to decisions made in 2009 to refuse to officiate same-sex weddings.
The Church Assembly’s oversight and assignment committee recommends rejecting the motion and instead further investigating the church’s view of marriage. The church emphasizes that this does not constitute an official position, but the work will continue until a final report in 2028.
Within EFS, the low-church mission movement inside the Church of Sweden, the issue has caused concern. In Kyrkans Tidning, Head of Mission Kerstin Oderhem raises the question of whether the movement can still belong within the Church of Sweden. EFS recommends that its priests refrain from officiating same-sex weddings.