This is apparently a first for the Episcopal Church -- and it came with the blessing fo the local bishop who performed the ceremony:
Episcopalians here and across the country are already divided over whether to elect gay bishops and allow their priests to perform same-sex weddings. Now they have another issue to discuss: The marriage of two lesbians who are high-level Episcopal priests in Massachusetts.Very cool.
In a wedding that appears to be the first of its kind in the U.S. – at least in the Episcopal Church – former Plymouth priest the Rev. Mally Lloyd married the Rev. Katherine Ragsdale, dean and president of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, on New Year’s Day. The Rev. Lloyd, a former pastor at Christ Church in Plymouth, is now a ranking official of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.
The Rev. Lloyd and the Rev. Ragsdale were married in a ceremony at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston, with about 400 guests attending. Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, the state’s highest ranking Episcopal official, presided.
Bishop Shaw has openly supported gay marriage for years. In 2009, a few months after the Episcopal general convention voted to allow “generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church,” he gave parish priests permission to perform same-sex marriages – to “solemnize” them, in the language of the Episcopal Church. Those actions came five years after gay marriage became legal in Massachusetts.
Of course, the Catholics had to be a little bitchy about this. The headline on Catholic.org reads: "Two Episcopal Lesbian Leaders 'Marry' in Boston Cathedral." Had to put marry in quotes and had to write about all the discord this will create at the next meeting of Episcopal leaders. Thing is, the couple is married in the eyes of the law. And, let's be real, Catholic.org, you may want to stir the pot in the the Episcopal church about marriage. But, that church can discuss these issues and not worry about the endless scandals involving its priests rapign children. That's what Catholics leaders are forced to talk about at their meetings.
