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Church to hold gay weddings Staff Reports, Mar 16, 2010
Dumbarton United Methodist Church
Clergy at Dumbarton United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., have vowed to perform same-sex weddings—putting themselves at odds with the denomination’s Book of Discipline.
The city council in December passed an amendment to legalize same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia, joining five states that allow the unions. The city began accepting on March 3 applications for marriage licenses from gay and lesbian couples.
Dumbarton’s pastor, the Rev. Mary Kay Totty, and 12 other ordained clergy who attend the church have agreed to conduct the weddings. “Some of them are retired clergy, some are serving in appointments beyond the local church,” Ms. Totty said in an interview.
The Book of Discipline prohibits clergy from performing homosexual unions. The 2008 General Conference affirmed marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
In a March 5 statement, Washington Bishop John Schol said he is required to uphold the Discipline “and will process and follow through with any complaint or charge brought against a United Methodist clergyperson of the Baltimore-Washington Conference who performs a same-sex wedding or holy union.”
Bishop Schol noted that United Methodists are divided over full inclusion in the church of gays and lesbians. “In the midst of these difficult matters of the church, I will do all I can to be fair and compassionate as I work to maintain the unity and witness of the church,” he said.
Dumbarton UMC is a member of the Reconciling Ministries Network, an unofficial caucus within the denomination that backs the “full participation of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities” in the life of the church, according to its Web site.
“I believe that as a pastor, I’m called to follow Jesus, to extend grace, to work for justice,” said Ms. Totty. “And treating all couples equally who are seeking to be married is a pastoral issue, a grace issue and a justice issue. I believe it is what Jesus would do.”
Ms. Totty and lay leaders at the church signed on Feb. 10 a Commitment to Marriage Equality, posted at DumbartonUMC.org. More than 100 members have since signed it.
“We lament that in our time, so many courts, legislatures, and religious institutions still deny same-gender and transgender couples equal access to marriage,” the document states. “We will honor and celebrate the wedding of any couple, licensed in the District of Columbia, who seek to commit their lives to one another in marriage.”
Dumbarton United Methodist Church
