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July 1, 2000
Danish Weddings Cross National Borders
Saturday, July 1, 2000 was historic: The inauguration of the Oresunds Bridge. Denmark was now joined with Sweden forever, and the longest bridge in Europe was a fact — one celebrated with pomp and circumstance. The royal families greeted each other in the middle of the span of concrete and steel to the cheers of crowds. The bridge made it possible to reach out, to travel freely and to join forces.
Now the new bridge that united our two countries plays an important role in unions of a different kind — Danish marriages.
When the Church of Scientology in Sweden received its marriage license on May 4, 2000, Danish Scientologist couples saw the possibility of crossing the bridge to Sweden to be legally wed in their own religion. As a bridge is the symbol of the journey upwards to total spiritual freedom in the Scientology religion, the trip across the Oresunds Bridge to be wed in their religion seemed somehow appropriate.
The steady stream of Danish couples going to Sweden to be married — based on the 1931 agreement between the Nordic countries that validates legal marriages between them — was thereby welcomed.
The beautiful Sibbarps Park has been chosen for most of the Danish weddings to date, with the Oresunds Bridge on the horizon. The first two Danish couples, Poul Erik Kristiansen and Grethe Berig, and Thomas Goldenitz and Christiane Bongard, were wed in August 2000 by Reverend Gun Lanciai who travelled from Stockholm for the occasion. Soon after, Thomas Vater and Majbritt Schaunburg crossed the bridge to be wed by Swedish Church of Scientology Reverend Lanciai — who also spoke to media gathered from both Denmark and Sweden to witness these historic Danish/Swedish weddings.
“I am very proud to conduct these ceremonies. Sweden is a great example for human rights and religious freedom,” Reverend Lanciai said. “Of course I would like to see Denmark soon get their own license, but meanwhile we are more than willingly helping our fellow members from across the bridge.”
More Danish couples have since been married by Lanciai and by Jan Andersson, minister in Gothenburg. Meanwhile Swedish Scientologists regularly come to the altar to be married with the Scientology wedding ceremony; Ministers in Stockholm and Gothenburg are kept busy. In late November, another Scientology minister from Stockholm, Vega Ostland, was authorized to perform marriages by the National Judicial Board for Lands and Funds. The ministers can foresee even busier times ahead with more weddings in addition to the other services and ceremonies performed by Scientology ministers.
All the wedded couples, whether Danish or Swedish, have foremost expressed the special feeling they have experienced when being wed by the Church’s own ceremony.
“Being married in my own religion gave me more integrity as a Scientologist,” said Majbritt Schaunburg Vater, one of the Danes married in Sweden. “I am proud of my religion and I am thankful to Sweden for upholding religious freedom and respecting diversity.”
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