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Some clergy think churches should divorce themselves from the wedding business. The controversy over same-sex marriage – along with a growing sense that many couples who marry in churches never return – has prompted faith leaders to say it's time to reconsider how California couples tie the knot.
After the California Supreme Court ruled gay marriage legal, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California began encouraging all couples to marry outside the church. "I urge you to encourage all couples, regardless of orientation, to follow the pattern of first being married in a secular service, and then being blessed in the Episcopal Church," Bishop Marc Handley Andrus wrote his clergy June 9.
After the California Supreme Court ruled gay marriage legal, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California began encouraging all couples to marry outside the church. "I urge you to encourage all couples, regardless of orientation, to follow the pattern of first being married in a secular service, and then being blessed in the Episcopal Church," Bishop Marc Handley Andrus wrote his clergy June 9.
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The idea of a secular marriage followed by a religious ceremony is something church leaders of various faiths have been discussing since the ruling on gay marriage, said Kent Carlson of Oak Hills Church in Folsom. He finds the idea "interesting, but I'm still thinking about it."
Carlson said many pastors are concerned about working as agents of the state, something they do during wedding ceremonies when they say, for example, "by the power vested in me." "This makes some ministers uncomfortable, because we're performing a civil function," says Carlson. "Most of us are pastors first."
Carlson said many pastors are concerned about working as agents of the state, something they do during wedding ceremonies when they say, for example, "by the power vested in me." "This makes some ministers uncomfortable, because we're performing a civil function," says Carlson. "Most of us are pastors first."
All this makes good sense to me. It recognizes the primacy of the state in creating and administering marriage as a civil institution and it recognizes the rights of the various denominations and religions to deal with the sanctification of marriage in their own way.
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1051489.html
