- Banned
- #1
All last week, Charlotte clergy who have led the push for marriage equality waited eagerly for news that, finally, gays and lesbians in North Carolina would no longer have to travel to other states to get married.
Even before Friday’s court ruling, the area’s three Unitarian Universalist ministers put out the call to same-sex couples who wanted to tie the knot in the coming weeks.
“Each minister has agreed to waive all their professional fees and open their sanctuaries that these couples may have a sacred space for their wedding,” read the release from the Revs. Jay Leach, Robin Tanner and Amy Brooks. Their denomination sanctions same-sex marriage.
The Rev. Nancy Kraft, pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, sounded the same note of anxious anticipation.
“I’m like a little kid 10 days before Christmas: ‘We’re ready! Let’s do it,’ ” said Kraft, who belongs to a denomination – the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) – that voted in 2009 to leave it to ministers’ discretion whether to to marry gay couples in states where it is legal.
Rabbi Judy Schindler of Temple Beth El, a Reform Jewish congregation, will be there. Twice since 201l, she has spearheaded caravans to Washington, D.C., to legally marry local gay and lesbian couples. She was joined both times by Tanner of Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church and the Rev. Nancy Allison of Holy Covenant United Church of Christ.
With Friday’s ruling, North Carolina has reached what Schindler calls “the Promised Land of marriage equality.”
For 11 years, she’s officiated at same-sex unions at her synagogue – Reform Judaism has been among those faith groups in the vanguard for equal rights for gays and lesbians.
“We’ve acknowledged the holiness of what our (gay) couples share, but we have not been able to provide them the legal protections that heterosexual couples have,” Schindler said. “(Now) we can have complete legal and sacred and equal celebrations.”
Rabbi Murray Ezring of Temple Israel, a Conservative Jewish congregation, also expects to perform same-sex weddings – as long as those getting married are both Jewish – now that they’re legal.
Myers Park Baptist is expected to perform gay and lesbian marriage ceremonies. So is Holy Covenant United Church of Christ, whose pastor, Allison, was among the plaintiffs in one of the suits that brought Friday’s ruling.
Denominations divided over x91 marriage equality x92 and x91 biblical principles x92 CharlotteObserver.com
Even before Friday’s court ruling, the area’s three Unitarian Universalist ministers put out the call to same-sex couples who wanted to tie the knot in the coming weeks.
“Each minister has agreed to waive all their professional fees and open their sanctuaries that these couples may have a sacred space for their wedding,” read the release from the Revs. Jay Leach, Robin Tanner and Amy Brooks. Their denomination sanctions same-sex marriage.
The Rev. Nancy Kraft, pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, sounded the same note of anxious anticipation.
“I’m like a little kid 10 days before Christmas: ‘We’re ready! Let’s do it,’ ” said Kraft, who belongs to a denomination – the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) – that voted in 2009 to leave it to ministers’ discretion whether to to marry gay couples in states where it is legal.
Rabbi Judy Schindler of Temple Beth El, a Reform Jewish congregation, will be there. Twice since 201l, she has spearheaded caravans to Washington, D.C., to legally marry local gay and lesbian couples. She was joined both times by Tanner of Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church and the Rev. Nancy Allison of Holy Covenant United Church of Christ.
With Friday’s ruling, North Carolina has reached what Schindler calls “the Promised Land of marriage equality.”
For 11 years, she’s officiated at same-sex unions at her synagogue – Reform Judaism has been among those faith groups in the vanguard for equal rights for gays and lesbians.
“We’ve acknowledged the holiness of what our (gay) couples share, but we have not been able to provide them the legal protections that heterosexual couples have,” Schindler said. “(Now) we can have complete legal and sacred and equal celebrations.”
Rabbi Murray Ezring of Temple Israel, a Conservative Jewish congregation, also expects to perform same-sex weddings – as long as those getting married are both Jewish – now that they’re legal.
Myers Park Baptist is expected to perform gay and lesbian marriage ceremonies. So is Holy Covenant United Church of Christ, whose pastor, Allison, was among the plaintiffs in one of the suits that brought Friday’s ruling.
Denominations divided over x91 marriage equality x92 and x91 biblical principles x92 CharlotteObserver.com
