The Russian Orthodox Church has broken contact with the Lutheran Church of Sweden after the Swedish Church voted to introduce a service of blessing for same sex civil partnership ceremonies.

“It is with great disappointment and sorrow that we learned that the Lutheran Church of Sweden not only failed to oppose the so-called same-sex marriages, but also issued a decree to establish an official blessing rite for those marriages," the Russian church's Holy Synod said in a statement issued at the end of December.

The Russian church official for external church relations, Metropolitan Kirill, also told the Russian television station NTV that the Synod had voted in favour of the “suspension of bilateral relations with the Church of Sweden”. “Approving the shameful practice of same-sex marriages is a serious blow to the entire system of European spiritual and moral values influenced by Christianity,” said the Russian Synod in a statement.