Church and State

Some weeks ago the Finnish supreme court found the Lutheran church guilty of gender discrimination, and the court ruled that the Lutheran church cannot appoint parsons who refuse to work with priests who are women. Afterwards, the spokeswoman for the christian democratic party complained in TV that lawmakers should not interfere with matters of church.

But hey, remember that the same christian democrats also campaign against the separation of the state and the church?

So. The christian democrats argue that the state shouldn't have any say in what the church does, but they also say that state and church must not be separated. In other words, there must be a national church but the nation must not meddle with church stuff.

I'd be really happy if someone would clarify to me why there is no contradiction. All the explanations I can come up with lead to quite disturbing conclusions.