In the spring of 2007, Norro refused to work with a female pastor just before a church service in Hyvinkää, southern Finland.
During the incident in question, Norro, a guest preacher in Hyvinkää, told his local female colleague that she would have to let him perform the church service alone. Norro then asked her to leave his side just minutes before the scheduled service was set to begin.
Court: Faith No Reason to Discriminate
Norro is a member of the Lutheran Evangelical Association in Finland (LEAF), an association within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland that does not accept the ordination of women. Norro has maintained that it is impossible for him to perform his duties alongside a woman and has demanded that charges against him be dropped.
However the Supreme Court ruled that religious freedom doesn’t imply that the law can be broken. Earlier court decisions emphasised that the church must abide by the same rules on gender equality as other workplaces.
“Actions determined by faith can’t lead to human rights breaches, such as gender-based discrimination,” the Supreme Court stated.
Around one-third of pastors in the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church are women.
