Gay Today: World

Canadian Church to Legally
Marry Same-Sex Couples

Compiled by GayToday

Toronto, Canada--The Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto (MCC Toronto), part of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), headquartered in West Hollywood, California, will be performing legal same-sex marriages beginning in January 2001.

UFMCC is an inclusive worldwide fellowship of Christian congregations with a special outreach to the world's gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered communities. Since its founding in 1968 by Rev. Troy Perry, UFMCC has grown into a denomination of approximately 45,000 members in 300 churches in 18 countries.

At an MCC Toronto church service held December 3, 2000, Senior Pastor Reverend Brent Hawkes made the following announcement:

"MCC Toronto is proud to announce that beginning in January 2001 we will be issuing marriage licenses for same sex weddings. Until now, we felt restricted from acting on our beliefs by what we thought was a legal impediment regarding same sex weddings.

“Being called by God to marry same sex couples, we recently sought legal advice and as a result, we have changed our position on the legality of same sex marriages. In keeping with the ancient Christian tradition of banns of marriage we will now be issuing marriage licenses for same sex weddings.

"We believe we will be the first to issue these licenses anywhere in the world. As you may know, the issue of same sex marriage is currently before the courts and we are seeking to participate in those court proceedings and we have retained Douglas Elliott, of Elliott and Kim to act on our behalf."

Mr. Elliott has advised the church that pursuant to Section 5 of the Ontario Marriage Act, the church has the authority to follow ancient Christian tradition of publication of banns of marriage instead of requiring couples to obtain a marriage license.

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Under Ontario law, couples who wish to marry can either obtain a license from a local municipal clerk or they can have banns published in a church they regularly attend. The municipal clerks in Ontario have declined to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and this is the subject of a current court case in the Ontario Divisional Court.

Until now, no church in Ontario has offered to marry same-sex couples by publishing banns of marriage. Banns of marriage consist of an audible announcement of the intention to marry at a church service in accordance with that church's practice, usually each Sunday for three Sundays preceding the wedding. It is the church that issues the marriage certificate following the wedding ceremony.

"We were delighted with the overwhelming response of our congregation and several couples have already expressed interest in being married in our church" says Rev. Hawkes.