Church Urged to Lift Ban on Gay Weddings
RALEIGH, N.C. — In a letter to bishops, 363 United Methodist clergy and laity urged the church to end its ban on celebrating gay and lesbian marriages.
The letter was released Sunday by Rev. Jimmy Creech of Raleigh, who was asked to leave a church in Omaha, Neb., after performing a same-sex blessing ceremony for two women in September 1997.
“Clergy colleagues will stand together, supporting one another, in the celebration of these unions,” said the letter, signed by people in 37 states and Washington, D.C.
In August, the 9.5 million-member United Methodist Church elevated a guideline against same-sex marriages into church canon and said ministers performing the ceremonies could be defrocked.
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