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<DIV class=timestamp>From <EM>The New York Times</EM></DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp> </DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp>July 5, 2005</DIV><NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0" type=" ">
<H1>United Church of Christ Backs Same-Sex
Marriage</H1></NYT_HEADLINE><NYT_BYLINE version="1.0" type=" ">
<DIV class=byline>By <A title="More Articles by Shaila Dewan"
onclick="javascript:s_code_linktrack('Article-Byline');"
href="http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=SHAILA K. DEWAN&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=SHAILA K. DEWAN&inline=nyt-per"><FONT
color=#000066>SHAILA DEWAN</FONT></A> </DIV></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody>
<P>ATLANTA, July 4 - The United Church of Christ became the first mainline
Christian denomination to support same-sex marriage officially when its general
synod passed a resolution on Monday affirming "equal marriage rights for couples
regardless of gender."</P>
<P>The resolution was adopted in the face of efforts to amend the Constitution
to ban same-sex marriage. It was both a theological statement and a protest
against discrimination, said the Rev. John H. Thomas, the president and general
minister of the denomination, which has 6,000 congregations and 1.3 million
members.</P>
<P>"On this July 4, the United Church of Christ has courageously acted to
declare freedom, affirming marriage equality, affirming the civil rights of gay
- of same-gender - couples to have their relationships recognized as marriages
by the state, and encouraging our local churches to celebrate those marriages,"
Mr. Thomas said at a news conference after the vote by the General Synod.</P>
<P>The synod's decisions are not binding and the vote will not require pastors
to provide marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples. Some United Church of
Christ ministers already perform such ceremonies.</P>
<P>While the United Church of Christ has not had the widespread divisions other
major denominations have experienced over homosexuality, some member churches
had said that such a vote could prompt them to leave the denomination, and one
group called for Mr. Thomas's resignation when he announced his support of the
resolution.</P>
<P>One amendment offered on the synod floor, and accepted, added a phrase
acknowledging the "pain and struggle" passage of the resolution would
create.</P>
<P>Yet the resolution, submitted by the church's Southern California-Nevada
Conference, appeared to have overwhelming support on the synod floor, where the
vote was done by a show of hands among the roughly 800 delegates after about 45
minutes of debate.</P>
<P>"Every indication was that it was going to go that way," said Brice Thomas,
42, a United Church of Christ pastor in Lebanon, Ohio, who is gay. "But still,
to hear it come to a vote and see it processed in such a positive way to me was
transformative."</P>
<P>Some, like Harlan Hall, a delegate from Wisconsin, supported a failed effort
to change the resolution to apply to "covenanted relationships" rather than
legal marriage. "As a well-over-30-years-old, heterosexual white male
capitalist, who seems like he's losing his position in the church - but still
can vote, I am in favor of the proposal," Mr. Hall said. "I could find it much
easier to sell back home."</P>
<P>But another delegate, Gregory Morisse, who opposed the amendment, said,
"Covenanted relationships are not under constitutional threat." </P>
<P>Hector Lopez, a minister from a small Latino church in Southern California,
said he was not at first enthusiastic about same-sex marriage. But after
officiating at about a dozen such ceremonies in Oregon and seeing the respect
and commitment of the couples, he said, "I experienced a passionate
conversion."</P>
<P>Several major religious groups permit same-sex unions, but do not give them
the same status as marriage, including the Episcopal Church, with about 2.3
million members; the Evangelical Lutheran Church, with 5 million; and Reform
Judaism, with 1.7 million. </P>
<P>"Today's word is not the last word in the U.C.C. about marriage," Mr. Thomas
said. "It is a crucial and groundbreaking first word in a difficult but
important churchwide discussion."</P>
<P>He said the church strove to have "diversity without division, unity without
uniformity." His hope, he said, is that "we will not run from one another,
because if we run from one another we run from Christ."</P>
<P>There was some evidence that the denomination could comfortably encompass
dissenters, in part because the mood after the vote was more conciliatory than
triumphant. The Rev. Barbara Headley, pastor at a predominantly black United
Church of Christ church in Hartford, said she voted against the resolution and
that many blacks were more "orthodox" in their interpretation of Scripture. </P>
<P>"There are those of us who live in the tension of affirming love and
relationships for people who have not had enough of that, and feeling like the
theological evidence for it just hasn't been presented," she said.</P>
<P>Ms. Headley was with Beverly Deloatch, another black delegate from
Connecticut, who said, "I voted for it, and I agree with everything she's
saying."</P>
<P>Jeanette Mott Oxford, who described herself as the first openly lesbian
member elected to the Missouri House of Representatives, said she was pleased by
the "brave prophetic witness" of the vote, but "very concerned about my brothers
and sisters who may be hurt by this."</P>
<P>The United Church of Christ prides itself on being in the forefront of human
and civil rights issues. On its Web site, the denomination says it and its
predecessors were among the first churches to take a stand against slavery, in
1700, the first to ordain a woman, in 1853, and the first to publish an
inclusive-language hymnal, in 1995. </P>
<P>Its slogan, "God is still speaking," is meant to suggest that the Bible is
not the sole source of divine instruction, and that Scripture must be
interpreted in today's context.</P>
<P>The equal marriage rights resolution states, in part, "Ideas about marriage
have shifted and changed dramatically throughout human history, and such change
continues even today." It continues, "In the Gospel we find ground for a
definition of marriage and family relationships based on the affirmation of the
full humanity of each partner, lived out in mutual care and respect for one
another."</P>
<P>Last year, two major networks refused to broadcast a United Church of Christ
commercial that showed two bouncers standing in front of a church, allowing some
people to come in and refusing others, including nonwhites and a gay couple.
"Jesus didn't turn people away," the text said. "Neither do we."
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