Well, you done pretty good there, Tony. But a couple of points of clarification:
we should remember that the Church of Sweden is a state church
Not since the year 2000, when it was disestablished. However, there are still many ties and connections and lingering after-effects. And the overall cultural influence (liberal-secular) is powerful de facto, even if de jure the Church of Sweden is no longer a "state church."
church is governed, unlike most other Lutheran churches, by an episcopal hierarchy. This is much more of a "Roman" type polity than we know here.
Actually, historically, an episcopal polity is much more Lutheran than we know here! Lutheran churches traditionally have had bishops. The problem isn't the polity; it's who's running the polity--whichever polity you choose--their faithfulness or lack thereof.
I think this ordination is a powerful stand for Biblical orthodoxy by the Lutheran Christians of Sweden. In effect, they're telling their state-sanctioned bishops "No more!" No more heresy, no more compromise, no more accommodating the Church to the world's trashy relativism.
Yes, that's right.
While I'm personally not sure what all the hot-button issues are over there, I'd bet ya the usual suspects (homosexuality, abortion, wymyn pastors, moral relativism) are at or near the center of their problems.
Take the liberalism of the ELCA and multiply that by 10, and you'll get an idea of just how liberal/apostate Den Svenska Kyrkan ("the Church of Sweden") has become.
Thank you both very much! Your clarifications were very helpful.