Episcopal clergy in the diocese of San
Joaquin, California have been given the green light to bless gay and
lesbian unions.
Clergy may “perform blessings of same
gender civil marriages, domestic partnerships, and relationships
which are lifelong committed relationships characterized by
'fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest
communication, and the holy love which enables those in such
relationships to see in each other the image of God,” Bishop
Chester Talton said in an announcement released Thursday.
Starting Sunday, the diocese will
recognize such relationships as “sacred unions.”
Gay marriage was legal in 2008 for a
brief period in the state before voters approved Proposition 8, which
overturned a California Supreme Court ruling legalizing the
institution.
Talton noted that church and state law currently “limit marriages to opposite sex couples.”
“Accordingly, until such time as both
the Canons and state law permit the solemnization of the marriage of
a same gender couple, and specific authorization of the bishop is
given, no priest of this Diocese shall attempt to solemnize a
marriage between two persons of the same gender.”
California recognizes gay couples with
domestic partnerships.
Episcopal bishops meeting in 2009
approved a resolution that recognizes the growing number of states
that allow gay unions – either marriage, civil unions or domestic
partnerships – and in effect granted bishops in those states the
discretion to offer a blessing.
The archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan
Williams, who as leader of the Church of England is the symbolic head
of the Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is the
American branch, has protested the church's increasingly liberal
attitude toward its gay members.