In a YLE TV interview, Mäkinen said that the Finnish minister who is acting as bishop within Lutheran Foundation congregations, Matti Väisänen, would do best to resign from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.
"I consider it impossible for Väisänen to continue as a priest in our church," said the Archbishop-elect Kari Mäkinen.
However, Väisänen told YLE that he does not intend to resign.
"When I undertook this, I had already thought it over. It would be running," explained Väisänen.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Luther Foundation have significant divergence on a number of doctrinal issues. According to representatives of the Foundation, the Church is not following biblical teachings.
"The Church should be a church, not some kind of mirror of this world that maintains some humanistic faith in society and repeats in spiritual phrases the same things that society is otherwise handling," argues Väisänen. "The Church is becoming an extension of national and local politics."
Matti Väisänen says that media coverage has focused only on the Luther Foundation's opposition to the ordination of women and condemnation of homosexuality. According to Väisänen, at issue is a more comprehensive approach to the Bible.