The Episcopal Church this week approved an official prayer service to be used at same-sex unions.
During its General Convention in Indianapolis Monday, church leaders voted in favor of a provisional liturgy designed specifically for same-sex relationships, making the Episcopal Church the largest Christian denomination in the United States to offer a same-sex union rite.
The church still defines marriage as between one man and one woman.
The resolution was accepted by the House of Bishops in a 111-41 vote Monday and the following night, the House of Deputies, comprised of both clergy and lay people, also gave its consent.
The “Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant” includes the trading of vows and rings — or blessing of rings that have already been exchanged — and each person’s promise that they will remain “bound to one another in a holy covenant, as long as they both shall live.”
The prayer is similar to that used by opposite-sex couples yet without words such as “marriage,” “husband” or “wife.”
Congregations would need permission from the bishop to use the prayer.
The resolution authorized the liturgy for provisional use beginning Dec. 2 and called for the church to review the blessing over the next three years, before the next General Convention.
Congregations in states that have sanctioned same-sex marriage may currently offer a same-sex blessing, but this week’s measure streamlines that process. The resolution stipulates that clergy who refuse to officiate a same-sex blessing cannot be penalized.
Also at the convention, the governing bodies amended the church’s nondiscrimination policy by adding “gender identity and expression,” facilitating the process for transgender church members to become clergy.
The Rt. Rev. Charles Bennison, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, told PGN that there were quite a few tears when the House of Deputies gave its final approval to the same-sex rite Tuesday. About 78 percent of laity and 76 percent of clergy in that chamber voted for the measure.
Bennison, a proponent of the measure, was on the committee that initially recommended its adoption Monday.
The committee held a hearing over the weekend, and Bennison said he had been worried that opponents would turn out in force, but that never came to fruition.
“It was really a non-event,” he said. “The room was only maybe a third filled, and after about an hour of people going back and forth with pros and cons, we switched to a different format and a lot of people went home, bored. That’s what we’re seeing in terms of polling on this issue in the country; most people have moved on in terms of their passion around social issues.”
Within the Pennsylvania diocese, Bennison said he has traditionally requested that clergy who have been asked to officiate a same-sex union notify him. He said he asks the clergy to perform the same level of pre-counseling that is given to heterosexual couples and to ensure that the couple is prepared to enter into the union.
He has given his consent to each of the handful of same-sex unions that has been presented to him in his 14-year tenure as bishop, except for one — which he asked to be delayed a few months.
“It would have come right on the eve of the 2006 General Convention and it could have been very controversial because at the previous convention we’d approved the consecration of Gene Robinson, the first partnered gay bishop,” Bennison said. “I was considered a fairly progressive member and was being watched pretty closely by the conservatives, so we thought if my diocese had what people would perceive to be a gay marriage right before the convention, it could become a cause célèbre for conservatives. So we asked the couple to wait a few months, and they were fine with that.”
The progress made at this week’s convention signals a new era in the church, Bennison said.
“I’ve been ordained for 44 years and have been Episcopal all my life, and the Episcopal Church today is an amazingly inclusive community, much more so now than in the past,” he said. “In terms of the trajectory of where we’re going, we’re a community that embraces all persons, and is accepting of them as they are. We’re not asking people to be something God did not make them to be.”
The Episcopal actions come weeks after pro-gay measures were rejected by both the Presbyterian and Methodist churches.
At its convention in Pittsburgh this month, the Presbyterian General Assembly narrowly voted against changing the church’s definition of marriage from the man-woman model to a “covenant between two people.” The measure failed in a 338-308 vote.
In May, United Methodist Church leaders voted against revising the church’s stance on homosexuality being “incompatible” with Christian teaching and cancelled two votes on the ordination of gay clergy and the creation of a same-sex-union blessing.