Where can a same-sex couple get married in church?
Article by Kocila Makdeche published on FranceTVinfo (France) on 29 June 2014, free translation by Marco Galvagno
Is it possible to get married in church when you are gay? It will be possible in the Protestant parishes of Alsace and Lorraine for the first time in France. With the approval of the marriage-for-all law (in France), the Protestant churches of the two regions near the German border have opened this burning dossier.
All the parishes have been called to an internal debate and to draw a synthesis which will be discussed during an assembly, explains Cristophe Kracher of the parish of Saint Guillaume in Strasbourg.
But if you are ready to travel many kilometers, some Protestant churches in Europe and the United States, as well as a small dissident Catholic church, already celebrate the unions of homosexual couples.
The Presbyterian Church in the United States recently authorized gay marriage but only in states where gay civil marriage is authorized. On June 19, 2014, the Presbyterian General Assembly meeting in Detroit, Michigan voted sixty-one percent in favor of celebrating gay unions in their places of worship.
This union will only be possible in the 19 American states where same-sex marriage is recognized. The Presbyterian Church, the name given to the Calvinist Reformed Church, has eighteen million faithful in the Anglo-Saxon world. It is one of the most important confederations of the United States.
The Huffington Post also underlines that validation by the 172 regional delegations is required to make the news official. But nothing should stop American gay couples from celebrating their union in front of the pastor anymore.
The Swedish Lutheran Church is a pioneer in this matter
Sweden is a forerunner in this matter. In 2009, parliament adopted with an overwhelming majority a law on sexually neutral marriage that allows gay couples to marry both civilly and religiously.
In Sweden religious marriages also have civil effects. The Protestant Lutheran church, of which 74 percent of the Swedish population still belonged in 2007, has also opened its doors to gay pastors. Gay marriage law prohibits the church from rejecting such unions, but pastors can individually refuse to hold the ceremony.
In this case, the church must find another substitute pastor. Some pastors had already allowed themselves to celebrate homosexual unions many years before the promulgation of the law. This is the case of the wedding of two Swedish girls, which took place in 2001 in the Oskar Friedrich church in Gothenburg. The Swiss Christian Catholic church instead offers a blessing, but not a real wedding.
Instead, the Catholic Church formally refuses to celebrate homosexual marriages; in a survey published by the Vatican itself, a clear refusal emerged: all the episcopal conferences expressed themselves against a redefinition of marriage between a man and a woman.
Instead, the Christian Catholic Church, which has 1300 members in Switzerland, is a cross between Catholics and Anglicans and is a dissident Catholic church. It is not recognized by the Vatican because it rejects papal infallibility (i.e. the dogma that the Pope is never wrong when he speaks on matters of faith) but it decided in 2006 to celebrate the union of gay couples.
It offers them blessings, but it is not a real religious wedding they point out on their site. However, he recalls the main aspects: a ceremony with a prayer of blessing.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany
In Germany, same-sex marriage is not authorized by law. However, gay couples have been able to formalize their union since 2001 through a community contract which gives them rights similar to marriage except in tax matters. However, Lutherans have been able to marry in places of worship since October 2013.
Two men took the first step last summer, saying their yes in a Protestant church in Selingenstadt near Frankfurt. As Hesse public radio stated, their union was officially registered in the marriage register of the German Evangelical Church.
Original text: If you marry in an election when you are a man, it is possible
