The U.S. Episcopal Church is poised to become the first major religious denomination in the United States to approve a rite for blessing gay marriages after its bishops overwhelmingly approved such a liturgy on Monday.
The proposed blessing was agreed by the church's Chamber of Bishops at a meeting in Indianapolis and is expected to receive final approval from its House of Deputies later this week, Ruth Meyers, a chair of the Episcopalians' Subcommittee on Prayer Book, Liturgy and Church Music, told Reuters.
The decision would go into effect in December and make the Episcopal Church, an independent U.S.-based institution affiliated with global Anglicanism, the biggest U.S. church to allow a liturgy for same-sex marriages.
The Episcopal Church is the 14th-largest denomination in the United States with nearly 2 million adherents, according to the National Council of Churches.
The United Church of Christ, a mainstream Protestant denomination with about a million members, has gone further so far than any other U.S. church, voting in 2005 to support same sex marriage. Read more
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Episcopal Church Set to Become First Major US Church to Give Gay Marriage Blessing
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"... first big U.S. church..." Whoever wrote that headline has not been reading the Episcopal Church's latest attendance and membership statistics.
Remember, it's quality NOT quantity that makes a Christian....
ReplyDeleteAt issue is not the quantity of Christians or the quality of Christians but accuracy in reporting. The Episcopal Church in the USA, whatever you may think of it, is not a big denomination. Even in its heyday it was not a big denomination!
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