The Oct. 17 ruling that now permits same-sex couples to marry in the state of Arizona has different meanings to various churches downtown.
Marriage licenses can now be issued through the state for same-sex couples, but couples wanting to marry through a specific church may need to meet particular requirements.
Pastor Sarah Stadler-Ammon of the downtown Grace Lutheran Church said the law doesn’t change a lot for those at the church. In 2009, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) held a church-wide assembly and determined they would allow pastors to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies.
The Lutheran Church was permitted to perform worship ceremonies in which gay couples could be married prior to the lifting of the ban in Arizona, but church officials were not able to sign marriage licenses — until now.
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Stadler-Ammon said marriages are spiritual because they involve asking for God’s blessing on a couple’s life together. All couples that she marries through the church, gay or straight, must first go through a pre-marital counseling process.
“I’m not just going to sort of willy-nilly marry anyone, regardless of their gender,” Stadler-Ammon said.
The Rev. James Pennington, the lead pastor at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Downtown Phoenix, has been performing same-sex marriage commitment ceremonies for about 20 years.
Pennington spent the day at the licensing offices downtown when the ban was lifted and married about 21 couples for free to celebrate the change in law.
“It was beautiful to see the straight folks who have been married affirm the marriages — the individuals that have been recently married,” Pennington said. “Because every Sunday since then, there’s been at least one of our couples that’s been married or that’s announced that they’re getting married.”
In the following weeks since the passage of the law, Pennington said he has performed about eight marriages for same-sex couples at the church, and there are about eight more couples that are in the planning stages to get married.
Pennington said their congregation is split about half and half between LGBT-identified members and straight-identified members, and more of the LGBT community might come into the church now with marriage equality.
“I think because there aren’t a lot of downtown churches doing weddings, it’s probably going to bring more LGBT people into the church, especially as they hear that there’s a church that not only accepts them but will actually stand beside them and marry them as a clergy,” Pennington said. “I think it’s probably going to help to grow our congregation.”
One of the first couples that Pennington married the day the law was passed even showed up in the congregation following their marriage.
“I think it also just affirms what we’ve been working for — we’ve been working for this justice issue for long enough,” Pennington said.
Although marriages are legal through the state and can be performed through a few churches downtown, there are still many churches that will not be performing same-sex marriage ceremonies.
The Roman Catholic Church does not permit same-sex marriage through the church, but the Rev. Michael Weldon of St. Mary’s Basilica said options such as the blessing of unions outside of the marriage ritual are arising in other Christian churches.
“The Roman Catholic Church is a long way from there,” Weldon said.
Weldon said there has been interesting press coverage of Pope Francis since he raised the issue with the bishops this summer. The Pope committed the bishops to two more summer meetings, keeping the idea of marriage equality in the conversation for the Roman Catholic Church.
“It’s going to be interesting. I think we’re talking and I think talking is a positive thing, but for those couples who are now able to marry civilly in most states of the union, it still isn’t a friendly conversation in the Catholic Church,” Weldon said.
Contact the reporter at snstull@asu.edu
