National Cathedral Celebrates Supreme Court Rulings with LGBT Service, African Drums

on June 27, 2013
Beth Pattison, front right, and husband John Pattison, wave rainbow flags during a prayer service for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender community to mark the Supreme Court's ruling at the National Cathedral on June 26 in Washington. (Photo Credit: Jahi Chikwendiu/Washington Post)
Beth Pattison, front right, and husband John Pattison, wave rainbow flags during a prayer service for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender community to mark the Supreme Court’s ruling at the National Cathedral on June 26 in Washington. (Photo Credit: Jahi Chikwendiu/Washington Post)

By Jeff Walton (@JeffreyHWalton)

Washington National Cathedral officials hosted a special service for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) persons the day of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and effectively overturned California’s voter-approved Proposition 8.

Advertised as “a service of thanksgiving celebrating an increase in compassion and equality,” the June 27 ceremony sought to place the Supreme Court rulings within the narrative of liberation struggles.

A congregation of approximately 300 clustered at the front of the Episcopal cathedral, still undergoing repairs from a 2011 earthquake. Chairs were arranged to face the procession. While the congregation was overwhelmingly middle-aged whites, songs were often African in origin, such as “Siyahamba” in which participants declared “we are marching in the light of God” accompanied by djembe drums. Several congregants enthusiastically waved rainbow flags emblazoned with the word “equality” as choir and clergy processed in to the Zimbabwean song “Uyai Mose” (Come, All You People).

“It’s a great night, isn’t it?” asked Cathedral Dean Gary Hall in his opening words of welcome, prompting sustained applause, hooting and cheers.

“Was that standing ovation for God or the court?” Hall joked, declaring his belief that “we have turned the corner in the faith community’s life.”

In a short homily, Hall recalled his own wedding 35 years prior, in which the Epistle reading was the same as at the LGBT service: Ephesians Chapter 3:14-19, in which Paul prays for the church in Ephesus to be “rooted and grounded in love.”

“In God’s view, something deep, holy and precious is going on when any two people commit themselves,” Hall announced.

Declaring that the church has been “on a trajectory,” Hall traced changed views of marriage from polygamy, unequal heterosexual unions, egalitarian heterosexual unions, to now same-sex unions. He offered no prediction on what was next.

“The sacrament of marriage is a divine gift – regardless of sexual orientation,” the Cathedral Dean pronounced. Stating that the Christian church has only been in “the marriage business” for 1,000 years, Hall bypassed early church teaching on marriage, as well as the wedding at Cana in John Chapter 2 and Jesus’ teaching about marriage in Matthew 19 in which he quotes Genesis Chapter 2.

“Let us extend that promise until it extends to every couple of all sexuality or gender,” Hall concluded. Following the reflection, the congregation was led in singing a version of “Surely it is God who saves me,” modified with gender-neutral language. A concluding prayer invoking Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and other contemporaries, along with petitions for the healing of Nelson Mandela, further buttressed the civil rights imagery of the service.

The National Cathedral service follows an announcement last year that the church would begin hosting same-sex weddings. Throughout the day, a string of Episcopal Church bishops and seminary deans issued statements in support of the ruling. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington extolled the court ruling as moving the country “closer to this vision of equality and unity” and called for Episcopalians to recommit to this “holy work.”

Similarly, Los Angles Bishop Jon Bruno declared: “we rejoice at the repeal of DOMA’s [Defense of Marriage Act] discrimination against LGBT families.” In his announcement, Bruno touted “provisional” liturgies for the blessing of same-gender couples that was adopted by the church’s General Convention last summer.

Arizona Bishop Kirk Smith was equally celebratory, proclaiming an indiscriminate inclusion and assessing that the United States “has come closer to a truth which has been ours as Christians from the beginning, that God loves everything and everyone God has made, and that we are called to reflect God’s love for us in how we love each other.”

  1. Comment by derryckg on June 27, 2013 at 4:05 pm

    LOLOL. Aging white people banging on African drums during a “celebration service” celebrating “love,” “compassion” and “equality.”

    Sounds like a very bad commercial for Whole Foods.

    The Episcopal Church is nothing more than a support group for aging and disaffected hippies. In all the Episcopal churches I’ve been in, I’ve seen no semblance of God in any of the liturgies or the homilies. Nothing more than a retread of 1960’s political ideology that’s justified by questionable hermeneutics and specious theology. I swear they have their own Bible translation.

  2. Comment by skotiad on June 27, 2013 at 4:22 pm

    The various gushy statements from the bishops read like a string of non sequiturs.
    “All people are made in God’s image,”
    therefore,
    men ought to be able to marry men.

    Is that what passes for logic at Episcopal seminaries? My one-year-old grandson is made in God’s image, but he isn’t allowed to marry.

  3. Comment by ramonestevez83 on June 27, 2013 at 9:45 pm

    derryckg, the reason you saw no semblance of God in their liturgies or homilies is that He isn’t there. Polls show that Episcopalians’ beliefs about a personal God, heaven and hell, the Bible, personal morality, etc are pretty much the same as people who identify as agnostics or atheists. This church and the other mainlines are just gathering places for trendy pseudo-sophisticated white people who treat gayness the same was as they treat ethnicity, as an opportunity to show how inclusive they are. they don’t even know God or a Savior, they are so infatuated with their own adorable selves.

  4. Comment by Donnie on June 28, 2013 at 7:49 am

    Don’t forget abortion! Abortion is “doing the work of God” according to the “Religious” Coalition of Reproductive Choice.

  5. Comment by stevemordecai on June 28, 2013 at 4:09 pm

    The article stated that “Hall traced changed views of marriage from polygamy, unequal heterosexual unions, egalitarian heterosexual unions, to now same-sex unions. He offered no prediction on what was next.” Let me suggest that eternal damnation is next unless they repent and put their trust in the Savior Jesus Christ, not the god of their imigination.

  6. Pingback by Steynian 477nd | Free Canuckistan! on June 28, 2013 at 6:37 pm

    […] RMN’s Lead in Distorting the Truth?; National Cathedral Celebrates Supreme Court Rulings with LGBT Service, African Drums; Faithfulness and Defiance in Virginia United Methodism; Bells Are Ringing; Bishop Mouneer Anis on […]

  7. Comment by Noel Weymouth on June 30, 2013 at 8:38 am

    The elderly couple in the photo are the age of my own parents, but my parents have better things to do with their time than serve as cheerleaders for secularism and immorality, especially on this particular issue, where Christians ought to be of one mind in opposing SSM. The liberal churches are full of people like this old couple, probably nice enough people in their private lives, but they’ve let their sub-Christian pastors and bishops cajole them into being patsies for the secular left. It used to be that the elderly were predictable: they opposed change, so they served as a segment of the population that could be relied on to oppose anything revolutionary, especially in matters of morality. Now they just go with the flow, as trendy as everyone else.

  8. Pingback by National Cathedral Dean Slams “Filthy Enactment” of Voting Rights Ruling | Juicy Ecumenism - The Institute on Religion & Democracy's Blog on July 2, 2013 at 9:16 am

    […] point in our shared march towards justice,” the Episcopal priest reported of a special Wednesday service for LGBT persons at the cathedral. Hall also noted “as we exalt in the joys of our lesbian and gay brothers and […]

  9. Pingback by Episcopalians Uneasy about Cathedral Inauguration Role - Juicy Ecumenism on January 13, 2017 at 12:25 pm

    […] and the Cathedral itself inserted itself into public conversation about gun control advocacy, same-sex marriage, voting rights and the Confederate battle […]

The work of IRD is made possible by your generous contributions.

Receive expert analysis in your inbox.