The newly appointed bishop of Iceland, Agnes M. Sigurðardóttir, advocates gay-marriage. “According to the laws of this country priests can marry gay couples. If I were asked to do so I would of course tie the knot,” the bishop says with determination in an interview with Icelandic newspaper DV. Adding she knows a lot of gay people, one of her friends is a lesbian, another has a gay son and two have gay brothers. “Gay people aren’t any different from the rest of us.”
This is a step-up for the National Church of Iceland (which is Lutheran) as the former bishop, Karl Sigurbjörnsson, was not always as tolerate towards gay-marriage as his successor. Sigurbjörnsson once said that by allowing gay-marriage the marriage as an institution could just as well be thrown in the bin. He later apologised for the remark and earlier this year resigned as head of church after being scrutinised for covering up a sex scandal within the church.