Matti Repo

Matti Repo

Matti Repo (born March 7, 1959 in Mikkeli , Finland ) is Bishop of the Tampere Diocese in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland .

Life

Repo studied for his high school Protestant theology in Finland and was a study of Johann Arndt for doctor of theology doctorate. In the parish Messukylä , Tampere repo served as pastor until 2002 of the 1985th Subsequently, he was responsible for basic theological issues and ecumenism in the central church administration. In 2008 Repo was elected Bishop of the Diocese of Tampere.

In 2010 he and Päivi Räsänen took part in the YLE 2 TV panel discussion Ajankohtainen Kakkonen , the topic of which was same-sex marriage, which has been discussed for months. The two expressed themselves negatively about homosexuality, called it a sin and opposed the planned same-sex marriage and the adoption law for homosexual couples, which has been in effect since May 2009, arguing that they were worse parents. The website Eroakirkosta.fi, which has been in use for leaving the church for several years, recorded an unusually strong increase in people leaving the church even during the late evening broadcast. In the course of the following day, instead of the usual 140 or so people, another 2,633 people left the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland , more than in the entire month of July combined. By the end of the week there were over 30,000 people. In an analysis later published by Eroakirkosta.fi, it became known that in addition to not giving reasons and the standard reasons such as lack of faith, church tax, etc., around a third of those leaving had given the TV discussion as a reason.

Web links

• Official website of the Diocese of Tampere

Individual evidence

1. ^ TAZ: Escape of the Liberals
2. ↑ Helsingin Sanomat: Record numbers of Finns resign from church after gay rights panel discussion on TV
3. ↑ Eroakirkosta.fi: Eroakirkosta.fi-palvelulla on tietoa eroamisen syistä - 40,000 kirkosta eronnutta homoillan jälkeen (Finnish)