Couples with Prop. 8 wedding jitters can turn to Castro chapel

(10-29) 20:13 PDT -- Note to same-sex couples wanting to marry by election day in case Proposition 8 passes: City Hall is completely booked for marriage licenses and ceremonies Friday, Monday and Tuesday.

But there are plenty of places to wed under the deadline. Just ask Victor Andersen, a 27-year-old Redwood City resident and ordained minister in the Universal Life Church.

Andersen converted a Victorian flat into the Heart of the Castro Wedding Chapel and opened for business the day after same-sex weddings became legal in California. He has married about 50 couples so far, from places as varied as Texas and Thailand.

Andersen and his friends have been standing outside City Hall this week wearing a pink sandwich board that reads, "Are you trying to get married before November 4? City Hall is booked."

He's offering election specials: $150 for a simple ceremony on up to $600 for the full shebang with keepsake photos and a video. Marriage licenses can be obtained in any county and brought to the chapel.

21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Roman’s 1:21-32

The Universal Life Church (or ULC) is a religious organization that offers ANYONE semi-immediate ordination as a ULC minister free of charge. The organization states that anyone can become a minister immediately, without having to go through the pre-ordination process required by other religious faiths. The ordination application, however, must be checked by a human in order to be official; therefore, true ordination usually takes a few days. The ULC’s ordinations are issued in the belief that all people are already ordained by God and that the ULC is merely recognizing this fact.
The Universal Life Church has no traditional doctrine, believing as an organization merely in doing “that which is right.” Each individual has the privilege and responsibility to determine what is right for him or her as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others. The Church does not stand between the member and their God.

Well non qualified ministers marrying homosexuals infringes on the rights of real married human beings by degrading the institution of marriage. So I guess they have no problem violating their own “mission statement”
Is this even recognized as a “real” church by anyone other then the people that are playiong around in it?

Several years ago, before I had an epiphany and returned to the church, a couple of my acquantance was having a tough time finding a minister willing to marry them. They wanted a pirate themed and costumed ceremony. Although I was, at that time, a professed atheist I did the online ordination through ULC and was thereby able to conduct a legal wedding for them.
I have to admit that researching the period ceremony in the Book of Common Prayer and performing the wedding itself helped lead me back to Christ. Now that I am in regular, formal communion I wouldn’t consider doing it again. I do understand the principle of apostolic succession.

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