Every Sunday there is a chance for the members of All Saints Church to put their faith into action by visiting the "Action Table" on the lawn.This morning that action will be signing a letter of thanks to Judge Vaughn Walker for his landmark ruling against marriage discrimination. Please join us on Sunday if you can to add your name to those signing on in person.
And if you can't join us on Sunday in Pasadena, then consider other ways to swell the ranks of those thanking Judge Walker for all of us. We know he'll be hearing from those who think they alone speak for "Christian Family Values." Let's make sure he hears from us, too!
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August 15, 2010
The Honorable Vaughn R. Walker
Chief Judge, United States District Court
for the Northern District of California
450 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102
Dear Judge Walker,
We write to you as members of All Saints Church, where our baptismal covenant calls us to respect the dignity of every human being. In the context of that covenant, we thank you for ruling in favor of dignity and against discrimination for gay and lesbian couples seeking marriage in California.
We write to you as a congregation committed to turning the human race into the human family. In the pursuit of that commitment, we thank you for equally valuing the gay and lesbian members of that human family and for rejecting “the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples.”
We write to you as a church that has been blessing the relationships of same sex couples since 1992 and which had the privilege of marrying 46 same sex couple between May and November in 2008. We thank you for the hope your decision gives us that California will once again be a state where we can offer both equal blessing and equal protection.
And we write to you as religious people who are convinced that no one has the right to write their theology into our Constitution. We believe our first amendment rights to freedom of religion are strengthened by your ruling and that it moves us closer to that goal of a nation of liberty and justice for all our founders intended.
May God bless you and keep you in the days and weeks ahead. Be assured of our prayers for you – for those you love, serve and challenge – and of our thanks for your work on behalf of all of us.
All Saints Church
Pasadena CA
1 comment:
God bless All Saints.
My husband and I were married earlier this year in Connecticut, and our state, New York, while not performing gay marriages, recognizes all valid marriages performed elsewhere.
We were together for ten years before we married. We imagined that being married would be no different. However, we speak often about how things have changed. It has bonded us even closer together. Using vows from the Prayer Book, we could actually feel the sacramental grace that came from our marriage. We feel it every day. Some gay and lesbian people dismiss marriage as a "piece of paper." I challenge that. We have made a lifelong commitment to each other, in front of God, with the grace of the Holy Spirit. We are finally a family in every sense of the word.
Interestingly, we didn't think much about getting married until we became Episcopalian and realized that our faith was calling us to holy union.
My hope is that California, and the rest of the country, can enjoy this grace as well.
Joe B
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