Jan 09, 2004   | COMMENTS     

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Pastors at South Church plan to sign marriage licenses for gay couples married at the facility, similar to those signed for opposite-sex couples, and send the licenses to Portsmouth City Hall for approval, the Portsmouth Herald reported. Officials at the Unitarian Universalist church on State Street want to promote the legalization of same-sex unions, the newspaper reported. Unitarian Universalist pastors have performed gay marriage ceremonies for more than 15 years, the Herald noted. “We want to encourage a change in the laws as expeditiously as possible,” Rev. Will Saunders told the newspaper. The Portsmouth church leaders, however, will not go as far as other Unitarian Universalist officials, some of whom have begun to refuse signing marriage licenses for heterosexual couples they marry. “It seems to me that not signing the certificates of heterosexual couples is a negative action,” said Saunders, who runs the parish with his wife, Rev. Marta Flanagan. “We’re not interested in angering people. We’re interested in change, and we want to get heterosexual couples on board too.”

Gay activist Kerry Lobel named MCC interim executive director
LOS ANGELES — Known as a social justice activist and leader among gay rights advocates, Kerry Lobel is the new interim executive director of Metropolitan Community Churches, MCC said in a news release. MCC is the world’s largest religious group with a primary ministry aimed at gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people, the release stated. Lobel began her new duties with MCC on Dec. 19. “Kerry Lobel was the unanimous choice of the MCC Board of Administration,” Rev. Dr. Cindi Love, chair of the board, said in the MCC press release. “Kerry brings extensive gifts and abilities to this new position. Her clarity and focus, her commitment to social justice, and her work on behalf of the spiritual needs of GLBT people of faith make her an excellent choice.” Lobel is a former executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and an author.

Spanish gay group sues Catholic leader after sermon
MADRID — The leader of Spain’s Roman Catholic Church is the focus of a lawsuit by a Spanish gay organization after the cardinal, in a sermon, said same-sex marriages would degrade the country’s social security system, the Religion News Service reported. The Popular Gay Platform, a group of politically conservative gays, filed the suit after a sermon by Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela at Almudena Cathedral in Madrid, RNS reported. Carlos Biendicho told El Mundo newspaper that Rouco Varela’s comments are “slander and an incitement to discrimination.” According to RNS, RoucoVarela said in his sermon that if families based on opposite-sex couples are made equal with “all types of unions, including those by nature unable to have children, it will result in the systematic destruction of the social security system.” He said gay couples will overburden the state pension system as they draw benefits without having children whose incomes would bolster the system, Religious News Service reported.

Petition sent to Anglican leader claims 13 million oppose gay bishop
LONDON — An e-mail petition sent last week to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams asserts that more than 13 million Anglican church members oppose a recently promoted gay bishop, the Guardian reported. Evangelicals opposed to gays within the Anglican communion asked Williams to offer an alternative for congregations who do not support New Hampshire’s Gene Robinson, the church’s gay bishop, the newspaper reported. Support for the petition rose from 500,000 to 13 million in a few days, according to the Guardian; heads of families, clergy, bishops and archbishops signed on behalf of all their family members and congregations. The petition asserts that “a majority” of the church’s 70 million members worldwide oppose the consecration of Robinson, the Guardian reported. It calls on Williams to refuse to recognize the ministries of any bishop who attended Robinson’s consecration, according to the newspaper. Those signing the petition said they will pray for the archbishop and for all “who are confused or living in sin,” the Guardian reported.

Three Dutch churches merge, plan to offer same-sex marriages
AMSTERDAM — Three Dutch Protestant churches will merge, put aside their ideological differences and agree to perform same-sex weddings, Newsday reported. On May 1, the Dutch Reformed Church, the Calvinist Reformist Church and the Lutheran Church will unite to become the Protestant Church of the Netherlands, according to the magazine. The combined churches will include about 2.2 million people, about 14 percent of the Dutch population, Newsday reported. The merger was viewed with “great apprehension” by conservative members of the Dutch Reformed Church, but they believe that unifying the church is most important, chair Arie van der Plas told the Dutch broadcaster NOS. Leaders agreed that no individual church will be forced to conduct same-sex marriages.