The Episcopal Church on Tuesday approved an official liturgy for blessing same-sex unions, enabling priests who have the approval of their bishops to bestow the church’s blessing on gay couples whether they live in a state where same-sex marriage is legal or not.
The adoption of an official rite, significant in a church in which liturgy is central, further solidifies the Episcopal Church’s shift to the left on sexual minorities. A day earlier, the church voted to approve a nondiscrimination policy that will allow transgendered people to be ordained to the priesthood.
The vote on gay blessings, which took place at the church’s triennial General Convention in Indianapolis, was 171 to 50. The vote was by the House of Deputies, which includes laypeople and clergy members. The church has a bicameral structure, and its House of Bishops overwhelmingly approved the new liturgy on Monday by a vote of 111 to 41, with 3 abstentions.
“This is significant because it’s saying, ‘This is around to stay — this is not a passing fad,’ ” said Mary A. Tolbert, founding director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Pacific School of Religion, in Berkeley, Calif. “It’s making a statement about the continued presence of gay and lesbian people among the congregations of the Episcopal Church, and that their lives need to be marked by liturgy as well.”
At the church’s General Convention three years ago, priests were granted provisional permission to bless gay couples if their bishops allowed it — and about 30 bishops did, said Bishop Thomas C. Ely of Vermont, who was among them. But many bishops, he said, have been waiting until the General Convention passed a specific liturgy to give their permission.
The resolution explicitly allows bishops who do not approve of same-sex relationships to prohibit their priests from using the liturgy. It calls the liturgy “provisional,” saying it will be re-evaluated in three years. It also does not refer to the liturgy as a marriage rite, calling it instead “The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant.”
But the liturgy includes many of the elements of a marriage rite, said the Rev. Ruth Meyers, a liturgist who oversaw the development of the same-sex blessing over the last three years as chairwoman of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music.
“There are a lot of similarities,” she said in an interview. “The couple give their consent to being joined in lifelong commitment, they exchange vows. There’s the possibility of exchanging rings, or, for couples who have been together for some time and already have rings, to have their rings blessed. There is a blessing over the couple.
“But we’re clear at this point that this is not a marriage,” she said, “because the Episcopal Church is not in agreement in its understanding of marriage.”Opponents said that the caveats did not assuage their concerns. Bishop Edward S. Little, who leads the Diocese of Northern Indiana, said in an interview, “The claim is that this is simply a blessing, but I do believe in any event it’s going to be understood in the wider Christian community as marriage, and in the secular world as the church having authorized same-sex marriage.”
Bishop Little said he would not allow the blessing in his diocese, though he knows that there are priests “of good conscience and good faith” and church members in his diocese who “yearn” for such a liturgy. He said he would be talking with them privately about how to proceed.
Nine years ago the church took what was then the monumentally controversial step of approving the consecration of its first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. That decision prompted conservative parishes and even some dioceses to break with the church and form a new conservative alliance.
It also caused an uproar in the global Anglican Communion, a network of national churches that trace their founding to the Church of England and now claim about 80 million members. The Episcopal Church, the American branch of Anglicanism, has about 1.9 million members, down from 2.3 million in 2003.
Bishop Little said he did not anticipate that Tuesday’s decision would have tremendous repercussions on membership. “My instinct is there will be some departures, but probably not massive,” he said.
The United Church of Christ, which voted in 2005 to support marriage for same-sex couples, already has rites for blessing such unions. But it does not have one official version for the entire church, because the denomination is more decentralized than the Episcopal Church.
The Rev. Susan Russell, senior associate of All Saints Church in Pasadena, Calif., and a longtime advocate of gay rights in the Episcopal Church, said in an e-mail, “I believe the Episcopal Church will continue to evolve on the issue of marriage equality and look forward to joining our U.C.C. brothers and sisters in being a headlight instead of taillight on marriage equality.”
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