Marriage Equality in the Nation’s Cathedral

Marriage Equality in the Nation’s Cathedral January 11, 2013

As noted this week on the website for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, GLAAD:

“The National Cathedral is one of the most recognizable places of worship in the United States, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors per year. It has also hosted many presidential inauguration services as well as the funerals for several presidents, including Ronald Regan and Gerald Ford.”

This is why it’s kind of a big deal that gay and lesbian Americans will now be able to marry in this sacred space.

USA Today reported some comments from The Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the National Cathedral:

I read the Bible as seriously as fundamentalists do,” Hall told the AP. “And my reading of the Bible leads me to want to do this because I think it’s being faithful to the kind of community that Jesus would have us be.”

The public and political significance of this rite in this place at this time was also noted by Hall:

“As a kind of tall-steeple, public church in the nation’s capital, by saying we’re going to bless same-sex marriages, conduct same-sex marriages, we are really trying to take the next step for marriage equality in the nation and in the culture.”

The next steps must continue to include people of faith and their institutions.

There are a lot of us.

Image via.


Browse Our Archives