{"id":703,"date":"2008-05-27T16:37:43","date_gmt":"2008-05-27T16:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2008\/05\/calif-episcopal-church-agrees.php"},"modified":"2008-05-27T16:37:43","modified_gmt":"2008-05-27T16:37:43","slug":"calif-episcopal-church-agrees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/05\/calif-episcopal-church-agrees","title":{"rendered":"Calif. Episcopal Church Agrees to Marry Gay Couples"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kevin Eckstrom<br \/>\nReligion News Service<\/strong><br \/>\nA prominent liberal Episcopal church in Pasadena, Calif., says it will allow gay and lesbian couples to marry after the state&#8217;s Supreme Court opened civil marriage to same-sex couples starting next month.<br \/>\nThe move by All Saints Episcopal Church is likely to fan tensions within the U.S. church and the wider Anglican Communion as Anglican bishops head to England this summer for a high-stakes, once-a-decade summit.<br \/>\nThe vestry, or elected leadership, of All Saints voted unanimously Thursday (May 22) to &#8220;treat all couples presenting themselves for the rite of marriage equally.&#8221; The church currently blesses same-sex relationships.<br \/>\n&#8220;As a priest and pastor, I anticipate with great joy strengthening our support of the sanctity of marriage as I marry both gay and straight members and thus more fully live out my ordination vows to nourish all people from the goodness of God&#8217;s grace,&#8221; said the Rev. J. Edwin Bacon Jr., the church&#8217;s pastor.<br \/>\nLos Angeles Bishop J. Jon Bruno, a supporter of gay marriage who welcomed the court&#8217;s ruling on May 15, could not be reached for comment.<br \/>\nIt was not immediately clear if other California parishes would allow same-sex couples to wed.<br \/>\nThe Episcopal Church defines marriage between a man and a woman, although some bishops allow same-sex blessings (but not marriages) in their dioceses. A spokeswoman for Episcopal Church headquarters in New York declined to comment.<br \/>\nAs All Saints moved to embrace the California court&#8217;s May 15 decision, conservatives filed a petition to stay the ruling until Golden State voters are able to vote on a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.<br \/>\nAt the same time, U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., said he would reintroduce a federal constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman. That proposal had effectively died when Democrats won control of Congress in 2006.<br \/>\nIn Massachusetts, the only other state to recognize same-sex marriage, Episcopal Bishop Thomas Shaw has told his priests they may bless those relationships but not officiate in same-sex civil marriages.<br \/>\nAnd in Canada, which also allows gay marriage, the Anglican Church is studying its internal laws that define marriage as between a man and a woman, and at least three dioceses have asked their bishops to grant permission for priests to perform same-sex weddings.<br \/>\nThis is not the first time All Saints has made headlines. Earlier this year, the IRS cleared the parish on charges of improper politicking stemming from a sermon on the eve of the 2004 presidential election.<br \/>\n<em>Copyright 2008 Religion News Service.  All rights reserved.  No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kevin Eckstrom Religion News Service A prominent liberal Episcopal church in Pasadena, Calif., says it will allow gay and lesbian couples to marry after the state&#8217;s Supreme Court opened civil marriage to same-sex couples starting next month. The move by All Saints Episcopal Church is likely to fan tensions within the U.S. church and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Calif. 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Episcopal Church Agrees to Marry Gay Couples","og_description":"By Kevin Eckstrom Religion News Service A prominent liberal Episcopal church in Pasadena, Calif., says it will allow gay and lesbian couples to marry after the state&#8217;s Supreme Court opened civil marriage to same-sex couples starting next month. The move by All Saints Episcopal Church is likely to fan tensions within the U.S. church and&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/05\/calif-episcopal-church-agrees","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2008-05-27T16:37:43+00:00","author":"akornfeld","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/05\/calif-episcopal-church-agrees","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/05\/calif-episcopal-church-agrees","name":"Calif. 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