The Swedish Lutheran Church has declared that it is in favour of allowing homosexual couples to have weddings in Church, although it recommended that the word "marriage" be used only for heterosexual unions.

The Church, which has 7.2 million members in a country of 9.1 million people, had been approached by the Swedish Government, which is currently preparing a "gender neutral" bill on marriage. The government hopes to present the bill to parliament early next year.

The Church said, "Marriage and (same-sex) partnerships are equivalent forms of unions. Therefore the Church of Sweden's central board says yes to the proposal to join the legislation for marriages and partnerships into a single law," reports AFP.

The Church of Sweden's board did, however, say that the word "marriage" should be used only for heterosexual relationships.

Since 1995, civil unions for homosexual partnerships have had the same legal status as heterosexual marriages in Sweden. Despite, this homosexual organisations have been campaigning to remove the last remaining difference between heterosexual and homosexual unions - having their union described as a "marriage".

Currently, Swedish law defines marriage as being between a man and a woman only. However, the government's new bill takes gender out of the definition of marriage.

Archbishop Anders Wejryd said, "There were different opinions on the board, but there was a large majority who felt that the word marriage should only be used for man/woman relationships," reports AFP.

The Church, while rejecting the idea of homosexual "marriage", has nevertheless said for the first time that homosexual couples may wed in a church. Until now, homosexuals could only have their partnerships registered in civil ceremonies.

If the new bill is passed, it would make Sweden the first country to allow homosexual weddings within a prominent Church. The Swedish Lutheran Church already began the practice of blessing homosexual couples earlier this year.