Gay marriage policies evolving

Published 5:00 pm Saturday, July 5, 2014

The Rev. Steve Parker of Bethany Presbyterian Church in Grants Pass was among the delegates at the recent church general assembly, held in Detroit, where a landmark decision was reached.

On June 19, the top legislative body of the Presbyterian Church USA voted to recognize same-sex marriage as Christian in its constitution, and will refer that decision for votes by region. It also gave pastors permission to perform, and churches to host, same-sex weddings, effective immediately.

With 110 churches in the Presbytery of the Cascades region, “Your chance doesn’t come around very often” to go to the national assembly, says Parker, who calls the decision “a way of opening doors to people, not a way of telling people this is how you have to believe.”

Churches on the local and national level are having varied reactions to same-gender marriage rights, from open-armed encouragement to firm opposition.

In addition to the national Presbyterian decision, recent events have changed the landscape for same-gender couples wishing to marry in Oregon.

On May 19, a federal judge ruled that Oregon’s 2004 vote to ban same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, making Oregon the 19th state to make gay weddings legally binding.

Also, on June 24, a Methodist minister from Pennsylvania who was defrocked for performing his son’s gay wedding in Massachusetts, where same-sex weddings are also legally binding, was “refrocked” thanks to a church panel that found a technicality in his case.

The decision will not affect the Methodist church policy on same-sex weddings but is being seen as a victory for Methodists involved in the church’s Reconciling Ministries, who are working toward more acceptance of gays and lesbians in their church.

The Rev. Richard Füss of Newman United Methodist Church in Grants Pass says he personally was pleased about the “refrocking” decision.

“As the world changes, the church not only must change, but part of our call is to lead the change if the change is toward greater tolerance and greater understanding,” Füss says.

Meanwhile, the next Methodist worldwide church conference is set for 2016, and it just happens to be in Portland.

“This will be a dominant topic,” Füss says. “Until then, we’ll continue to struggle with this issue.”

The Presbyterian USA churches, though, are in the news now for their recent decision.

“We’re really big in the Presbyterian church on justice and equity,” Parker says, noting that interpretations of what the New Testament says about same-sex relationships is hotly debated.

“This particular decision was less about the Scripture and more about the many gay and lesbian Presbyterians who have asked us to recognize their relationships,” Parker says. “And each church has the full freedom of their conscience” to decide whether to perform the marriages.

Parker says he’s aware the decision will cause dissent. “There may be some people who will leave. I hope not,” he says. “It weakens our mission and our ministry.”

Several congregations left the national church organization earlier when the decision to ordain gay and lesbian pastors was reached, so this decision may not be as divisive with the large number of congregations who stayed with Presbyterian USA.

Ordaining gays and lesbians was among several issues that led Rogue River’s Hope Presbyterian Church to leave Presbyterian Church USA in 2007 to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, says the Rev. Brian Boisen.

“In a nutshell, it was not any single thing. When we evaluated our membership and the PCUSA, we’d had a number of concerns for years and those kind of came to a head,” Boisen says. “We were primarily focusing on issues surrounding our witness to Jesus, but incidentally connected to that there were issues of other things including sexual moral standards and some of that related to views on homosexuality, because that was very much the hot topic then, just as it still is today.”

Around the same time, Boisen says, churches in Jacksonville and Medford also left for the same new denomination, while another Medford church went to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, a denomination that broke with the USA church in 1936.

When the Episcopal Church voted in 2012 to allow priests to bless a same-sex union, on the heels of a 2003 decision about ordaining gay and lesbian priests and considering same-sex blessings, several churches left the denomination.

“But at this point in the debate, I think those who have left the church over it are already gone,” says the Rev. Todd Young of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Grants Pass. “I think the Episcopal Church has been fighting about this for a long time and with the reality of what the states are doing, and the people who have fought it are gone. I think we’re just tired of talking about it.”

The 2003 decision was a major factor in St. Jude’s Anglican Church being formed in Grants Pass in 2005, which happened before Young’s tenure at St. Luke’s. Many who founded St. Jude’s were former parishioners at St. Luke’s.

Young adds that, when marriages became legal in Oregon for same-sex couples, the state’s bishop sent out a notice that the blessing ceremony could become a marriage ceremony for priests who chose to perform them.

Since 2009, the Evangelical Lutheran Church has left the decision up to each pastor and church, much like the recent decision made by Presbyterian USA.

Oregon’s ELCA bishop, Dave Brauer-Rieke, posted a letter after Oregon’s ban was overturned appreciating the moment of marriage equality and encouraging congregations to discuss whether the decision might mean a change for them.

“Some congregations will be offering same-gender marriage services and some will not. The decision is yours to make,” he wrote to the 120 churches in his synod.

Smaller denominations that have long been at the forefront of the struggle to accept same-sex marriage include the Unitarian Universalist, the Society of Friends (Quakers), the United Church of Christ and the Metropolitan Community Church, which was founded to serve the LGBT community. Of these, only the Unitarian Universalists meet in Josephine County.

However, the majority of Protestant denominations reject same-sex marriages being blessed or performed by the church, as does the Roman Catholic Church.

One of the largest congregations in the Grants Pass area is River Valley Community Church, which is not affiliated with a national denomination. Another is Edgewater Christian Fellowship, which also has no national affiliation. Parkway Christian Center, associated with the Assemblies of God, is another large congregation in Grants Pass.

All of these large local churches have been firmly against same-sex marriages.

“We would hold to the Old and the New Testament that a marriage is between a man and a woman,” says Mark Goens, pastor of River Valley Community Church. “It would be very difficult for us to even recognize such a marriage.”

Meanwhile, gay and lesbian couples don’t seem to be clamoring to get married in church in Josephine County.

Parker says he has not received any calls about the change, or asking him to perform a service since he returned from Detroit.

Young says St. Luke’s has not yet been approached, either.

“I think we haven’t had anybody ask, so it hasn’t been right up front,” Young says.

Calvary Lutheran Church has not hosted a same-sex wedding, either, according to church staff.

Reach reporter Edith Decker at 541-474-3724 or edecker@thedailycourier.com