NEWS: A Protest for Gay Marriage

CULTURE: A Protest for Gay Marriage

A New Haven, Connecticut church and its rector have decided to protest the Episcopal Church's position against granting same-sex marriages. The protest? A moratorium on weddings, homosexual and heterosexual alike. From the piece this morning in the New York Times:

The church has lost several families in the past weeks since initially granting Father Michael Ray the right to perform same-sex marriages—it has become the first Episcopal church in the country to do so. The decision, made by a 10 to 1 vote within governing body of the parish, caused controversy and led directly to end all marriages. Such a decision, and the reaction to it, is representative of a much larger issue within the church that was set off last year with the ordination of the openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson in New Hampshire.

This show of solidarity from the congregation will hopefully not be the last within the sprawling Episcopal Church. Regardless of the outcome, though, this could be the first shot fired in what may become a long and drawn-out battle over the direction of this Christian community with regard to same-sex unions.

[Edited on Jan 15, 2005 7:07PM]

Ditto

The minister of the Unitarian Universalist church I used to attend will not marry any couple until she can marry homosexual couples.
Nobody cares about crazy UU's though, and I applaud the actions of these many Episcopalians for standing up and saying that gay people should just be treated like people, not like gay people.

They can still get married by Elvis lookalikes in Las Vegas like the world's A listers can't they though?

You are both way off base. This fight within the episcopal church is huge. I think this is a greta step and I aplaud the efforts of those within the christian community to fight for equal rights for all!

Fewer people getting married? Maybe it'll lead to a lower divorce rate, and save us all (us singles too) a lot of time and money.

The Christian conservatives have always said that homosexual marriage would destroy the institution. Guess they are right.

Brilliant! Perhaps all hope is not lost. I wish someone would do something like this here...

OK so what will the next step be? I would like to see the Mormon church take a giant leap, but I know that won't happen in the near future. I am just surprised that any christian group would recognize a gay marrage. Maybe the moral majority is finally breaking down and seeing the light.

V_S

The United Church of Canada has been openly supporting gay marriage since 2000.

The government may allow homosexual marriage and there will be some debate, however the government cannot require churches to preform gay marriages if they choose not to. Doing so would violate first amendment rights of said religious institution.

I don't understand this mainstream acceptable stance against gay marriages. What if there was an uprising against interacial marriages, would that be ok, too? No, that would be racist, but it's still always ok to be a homphobe. God bless us.

I just love that my home city of New Haven is doing this! Makes me want to move back home.

I live less than a 1/2 mile away from this and heard no press about this! It shows that I should get active far more locally than I'd thought possible and start reading the Times more!