Posted on 06/29/2005 3:08:46 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
As the United Church of Christ stands poised to consider a resolution endorsing equal rights for same-sex couples, the head of the church has thrown his support behind marriage equality.
"I believe the General Synod should affirm the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons to have their covenanted relationships recognized by the state as marriages equal in name, privileges, and responsibilities to married heterosexual couples," the Rev. John H. Thomas, president and general minister, said in a speech on Tuesday in Atlanta.
Church delegates will consider a resolution in support of equal marriage rights for same-sex couples this weekend in Atlanta at the meeting of the General Synod of the United Church of Christ.
Some congregations have threatened to leave the denomination if it backs gay marriage. The synod meets every two years to set national policy for the denomination, although those policies are not binding on individual congregations.
If the resolution passes, the UCC would be the first mainline Christian church in the United States to endorse equal rights for same gender couples, said the Rev. Bob Chase, communications director for the church. In 1996, the Unitarian Universalist Association passed a resolution supporting the right of same-sex couples to marry.
Media scrutiny of the United Church of Christ has been heightened since December when NBC and CBS rejected television ads from the church aimed at promoting the denomination as a welcoming place of worship.
The networks deemed the ads controversial because they were purportedly designed to further the advocacy of gay marriage, something church officials vehemently denied.
The Rev. Tisha Brown, pastor at Community of Hope UCC on Madison's west side, said she was excited to hear that Thomas has issued a statement in favor of marriage equality for same-gender couples.
Brown said it's time to recognize the relationships that gay and lesbian couples have and extend the rights and privileges of marriage to couples who choose to go that route.
She anticipated the marriage equality resolution would prevail when delegates vote Monday.
"My assumption is that it will pass and our denomination will come out in the forefront on this issue as we did in the early 1980s when we became the first mainline denomination to acknowledge the need to recognize gay and lesbian folks," she said.
Brown said the UCC was a pioneer 20 years ago when it recommended that its local congregations be open and welcoming to all people, including gay and lesbian members.
At the synod meeting in Atlanta, delegates will also consider two other marriage resolutions: One would urge further study before the church takes a position on same-sex marriage and the other would declare marriage to be strictly between one man and one woman.
Chase said Thomas has been studying the three proposed resolutions on marriage since late April, when they became public.
He said Thomas listened to voices from around the church and spent time in personal prayer and reflection. Chase said Thomas realized the issue of marriage, and marriage equality in particular, had become part of a pressing cultural controversy.
"He decided it was incumbent upon him in his role as a leader of the UCC to make a statement of his own personal convictions on this issue," Chase said.
Chase also noted that Thomas punched holes in the argument that the Bible prohibits marriage between same-sex couples.
"Nothing could be further from the truth," Chase said.
The Rev. David Moyer, UCC's Wisconsin Conference minister, said he was pleased Thomas acknowledged the pain church members who don't agree with him may feel.
"Certainly people will divide on this issue," he said. "This is a very divisive issue in our culture and I think some people have used it as a very polarizing issue. In my mind that adds to the pain of the people who get caught up in it."
The Wisconsin Conference voted recently to study a proposed state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and take a stand on the proposal at its annual conference in 2006.
There are 236 UCC congregations with 64,000 members in Wisconsin.
Nationwide the church has 1.3 million members.
I home-church now.
FMCDH(BITS)
Just wait till the eminent domain libbies find out and then "tax" your "church" or decides to run you out of house and home to make way for more new tax generating strip malls.
Are they in any way related to the Boston church of christ cult? Or are they a spin off of the ultra-conservative mainstream churches of christ?
HA! These people are the descendants of the Puritans (the old New England Congregationalists). That's how low we've sunk in this country.
Another church body succumbs...
Sigh, yes. The church needs to take a stand against this filth.
Only half of the UCC came from the Puritans; the other half came from the German Evangelical and German Reformed (later "Evangelical and Reformed") which had it grounding the Heidelberg Catechism.
Quoting from an 1854 edition on the Seventh Commandment:
What does the seventh commandment teach us?
That all uncleanness is accursed of God, and that, therefore, we must, with all our hearts, detest the same, and live chastely and temperately, whether in holy wedlock or in a single life.
This kind of stuff is really making me sick.
I home-church now.
FMCDH(BITS)
I'd find a good church in your area that tells it like it is and isn't afraid to do so. It's good to go to church to get inspiration and support from other believers.
they aren't related to the Boston CoC cult. Neither is the mainstream Church of Christ related to the cult. I'm not sure if the UCC is a spinoff from the CoC, but I don't believe it is. I think the UCC is descended from the Puritans (!) while the CoC developed in the 19th century.
at 1.3 million, they're down about 30% in 30 years; bet it won't take another 30 to extinction.
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