Resources for Same Sex Marriage
By its adoption of Resolution A036, General Convention ruled that our new Canon I.18 on Marriage became effective Sunday, November 29, 2015, the First Sunday of Advent. The most notable change in this Canon is the removal of gender-specific language regarding the parties who can be married. By this Canon, therefore, marriage is equally available to all couples.
With its adoption of Resolution A054, General Convention has made a new liturgical resource available to the Church that includes a revised form of “The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant” first made available in 2012, and also two other liturgies for trial use, “The Witnessing and Blessing of a Marriage” and “The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage 2.” These liturgies are available to the Church for use, subject to the pastoral leadership of the bishop exercising ecclesiastical authority. The liturgy titled “The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage” on page 423 of The Book of Common Prayer (1979) continues to be a resource available to the Church for use with the marriage of a man and a woman.
Read Bishop Skirving’s Pastoral Letter on Marriage, Nov. 29, 2015
- I Will Bless You and You Will Be a Blessing – the revised and expanded edition from the General Convention website that includes other Liturgical resources. If you would like to purchase a copy of this book, please visit the Church Publishing website.
Liturgies for Same-Sex Marriages:
Previous Resources:
English