A resolution passed at the Episcopal Church’s 2009 General Assembly calling for a “generous pastoral response” towards same-sex couples has quickly led to diocesan-approved same-sex blessings and even marriages. The resolution, C056, “Liturgies for Blessings” called for the church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to “collect and develop theological and liturgical resources” for the blessing of same gender relationships.
“… bishops, particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this Church,” the resolution reads.
Media reports have primarily centered upon the other controversial resolution, D025, which effectively rescinded a moratorium on the consecration of new partnered gay bishops. While Episcopal elections in the dioceses of Minnesota and Los Angeles have generated attention due to the nominations of actively gay clergy, the effects of C056 may be more far-reaching that D025 (the Diocese of Minnesota did not elect the gay candidate for bishop, the Los Angeles election will be held at their diocesan convention in Riverside, California this weekend.)
Some revisionist dioceses have conducted unofficial same-sex blessing ceremonies for years. However, bishops in these dioceses usually “looked the other direction” and did not alter official diocesan policy. That changed in 2008, when the Episcopal Bishop of Los Angeles Jon Bruno authorized the use of a rite for the “Sacramental Blessing of a Life-long Covenant” which included same-gender couples.
“While the state will not allow us to officially marry same-sex couples, we believe the same blessing ceremony afforded to men and women should be afforded to same-sex couples,” the new policy said.
A similar policy announced November 16 by the Rt. Rev. Paul V. Marshall, Bishop of Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) also provided for church blessings of same-sex couples.
In a letter to clergy, Marshall wrote that General Convention “empowered bishops to make ‘Generous Provision’ regarding pastoral and liturgical ministry to same-sex couples.”
According to The Living Church magazine, Bishop Marshall said that such blessings should occur in church and that the Holy Eucharist should be celebrated “when that’s appropriate.” Other requirements are similar to those for couples preparing for marriage: One person must be a baptized Christian and the couple should receive counseling.
However, the bishop cautioned his priests not to confuse blessings and marriage rites.
“People whose unions are blessed need to understand that in Pennsylvania they are not married, and that your holding yourself out as doing a ‘marriage’ without a license to perform it is a legal offense,” Bishop Marshall wrote. “So, all questions of theology aside, it is best to avoid the word in this commonwealth and at this time.”
Marshall instructed clergy to use the Book of Common Prayer’s blessing of a civil marriage, with the language “adjusted as necessary”. The Nuptial Blessing is also to be used, and the Holy Eucharist may be celebrated.
Possibly the most significant change has been in the Diocese of Massachusetts, where Bishop M. Thomas Shaw has announced that clergy may, beginning November 29, preside over same-sex marriage ceremonies. Unlike dioceses where only “blessing” ceremonies have been permitted, in Massachusetts the presiding priest can sign marriage licenses and use the word “marriage.” The Episcopal dioceses of Iowa and Vermont also allow their clergy to officiate at marriages.
According to the Boston Globe, Shaw, a longtime supporter of gay rights and same-sex marriage, had previously cited the Episcopal Church’s canons and prayer book in barring local priests from officiating at same-sex marriages, even after such unions became legal in Massachusetts in 2004.
The announcement was preceded in September by the marriage of a lesbian couple at the historic St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One of the women, Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons, said in the Daily Dispatch that the ceremony may have been the “very first” mainstream African-American church “to hold a same-gender wedding, and that’s something that just wouldn’t have happened years ago.”
The ceremony was officiated by Rev. Irene Monroe, a liberal Episcopal minister who is a lesbian herself, while the legal marriage was conducted by a justice of the peace.
The Episcopal Diocese of Maine is one example of a church that has retreated from performing same-gender weddings. Bishop Steven Lane said that after Gov. Baldacci signed Maine’s same-sex marriage law earlier this year, Lane began to work on a set of guidelines for Maine Episcopal clergy to use with legal same-gender marriage. Due to the law’s repeal by a voter referendum, these guidelines will not be distributed.
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