'Simply a Marriage'

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Here's hoping that one day, gay and lesbian marriages will be so commonplace that they'll no longer make news.

The New Year's Day marriage of two Episcopal women priests in Massachusetts is gaining notice among members of other denominations as an example they hope they churches will follow in the near future.

The Rev. Mally Lloyd, canon to the ordinary (chief operating officer) of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts married the Rev. Katherine Ragsdale, dean and president of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA, on Jan. 1. Episcopal Bishop M. Thomas Shaw officiated at their wedding ceremony at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston, with about 400 guests in attendance.

In an interview with WBUR, a National Public Radio affiliate in Cambridge, Rev. Lloyd said she hopes people will see her and Rev. Ragsdale's marriage not as a "gay ceremony," but simply as “a commitment and marriage like any other.” She told writer Lane Lambert of the Cambridge Ledger: “We are asking God’s blessing, and asking the community and our friends to bless our marriage.”

Same-sex marriage has been legal in Massachusetts since 2004, but it wasn't until 2009 that the Episcopal Church voted to allow what its legislation calls a "generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church." A longtime supporter of gay marriage, Bishop Shaw gave Massachusetts priests permission to "solemnize," or officiate at, such unions in 2009 after the Episcopal Church's General Convention voted.

A press release from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge said the two women were introduced by a mutual friend in the summer of 2008, a few months before each was named to the high ecclesiastical offices they now hold.

The status of LGBT people remains a point of serious contention in several U.S. and global denominations, including the Anglican Communion of which the Episcopal Church (USA) is a part. Legislation concerning the rights of LGBT people, including marriage and ordination, has been fought over for nearly 40 years among Presbyterians, United Methodists, Lutherans and other denominations.

My thanks to faithful reader Anne C. Ewing of Germantown, PA, for bringing this happy event to my attention.

WBUR Radio interview