Two Episcopal Lesbian Leaders 'Marry' in Boston Cathedral

By David W. Virtue
1/3/2011
Virtue on Line (www.virtueonline.org)

Massachusetts Episcopal Bishop Tom Shaw officiates at first lesbian marriage

The lesbian service "united" Episcopal Divinity School dean and president, the Very Reverend Katherine Hancock Ragsdale and Mally Lloyd, Canon to the Ordinary. It was the first lesbian marriage solemnized by Thomas Shaw SSJE, Bishop Diocesan of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

Episcopal Divinity School dean and president, the Very Reverend Katherine Hancock Ragsdale

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CAMBRIDGE, MA (Virtue On Line) - In an act that will further alienate The Episcopal Church from the Global South and raise tensions for the Archbishop of Canterbury at the upcoming Primates meeting in Dublin, two top Episcopal leaders were married at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston on Saturday.

"God always rejoices when two people who love each other make a life-long commitment in marriage to go deeper into the heart of God through each other. It's a profound pleasure for me to celebrate with God and my friends, the marriage of Katherine and Mally," said Shaw. Some 400 guests attended the marriage.

Though the Episcopal Church's canons and formularies still state that marriage is between a man and a woman, the church at its General Convention in July of 2009 decided to allow "bishops, particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church."

In November 2009, Shaw announced his decision to allow clergy in the Diocese of Massachusetts to solemnize all marriages--a long wait for many given that same-gender marriage was legalized in Massachusetts more than five years earlier.

Ragsdale, 52, became dean of the historic Episcopal Divinity School in October 2009. She is the first woman to hold that position.

Same-sex marriage in the state of Massachusetts was permitted on May 17, 2004, as a result of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional under the Massachusetts constitution to allow only heterosexual couples to marry.

At that time, Massachusetts became the sixth jurisdiction in the world (after the Netherlands, Belgium, Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec) to legalize same-sex marriage. It was the first U.S. state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Although the U.S. District Court in Boston ruled in two related cases on July 8, 2010, that the provisions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act barring federal recognition of legally married same-sex couples are unconstitutional, the final judgment is stayed pending the federal government's appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. An appeal was filed on October 12, 2010, by the U.S. Justice Department. Consequently, same-sex couples in Massachusetts are not eligible to receive federal recognition of their marriages, pending the outcome of the appeals process.

The dean is also known for her radical view on abortion. In April 2009, the then new Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, gave a sermon describing abortions as a "blessing" for the women who undergo them. She also said that people who run abortion clinics are "heroes" and even "saints".

Speaking in Birmingham, Alabama, she said that "when a woman becomes pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option open to her; decides she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to a safe, affordable abortion - there is not a tragedy in sight - only blessing."

According to a diocesan press release, this is a second marriage for Canon Lloyd. It is the first for Dean Ragsdale, 52. "It's astonishing how the world is changing," Dean Ragsdale said, "when I grew up, I never believed I would be able to have someone special in my life and now to have almost 400 people show up to support us at our marriage ceremony is wonderful."

Canon Lloyd commented: "We have a lot in common, we each have a spiritual life that the other understands and respects and we also understand the amount of travelling and often late hours that our work requires. Somehow too when you are in your fifties, certain things just aren't as big a problem as they seemed in your twenties."

Perhaps. However this action will only confirm in the minds of orthodox Anglicans around the world that the Episcopal Church has walked apart, snubbing its nose at Lambeth resolution 1:10, the Windsor Report and a Covenant designed to hold the Anglican Communion together.

It will also mean the Archbishop of Canterbury will not be permitted to yawn if and when the issue is raised at the Primates' meeting. It also further confirms why some eleven orthodox primates will not be attending the Dublin meeting called by Dr. Williams.

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Virtue Online, edited by David W. Virtue, is the Voice for global orthodox Anglicanism.

Keywords: lesbians, episcopal church, gay, homosexual agenda, episcopal leaders

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1 - 10 of 32 Comments

K.C.thomas
2 years ago
What have these protagonists of same sex marriage in the name of no discrimination on gender basis, say if I point out that the males do not carry and deliver a baby whereas the females do Is it not a discrimination Should the God who created them male and female be held wrong ?
Deric
2 years ago
Additional reason why I left the ECUSA. Shame, shame, shame. I could not and can not support this organization that so flagrantly flaunts sin in the face of all.
JeanCatherine
2 years ago
If your out there brothers and sisters of same sex (To JeanCatherine: Editors Note: The phrase you intend to use every time you say 'same sex" is Same Sex Attraction, SSA - Please do use it otherwise your very helpful comments will be misunderstood) come out of the lifestyle. Come home to your Mother church. If you are in the church seek out the Courage Apostolate. We do not hate you.
LRoy
2 years ago
Thank God I converted to Catholicism five years ago. If I hadn't yet, this would've been the "straw that broke the camel's back".

Same sex "marriage" may be legal in Massachusetts, but God's laws come before man-made laws. That's it.
JeanCatherine
2 years ago
dsnk

Holy Father hasnt forgotten you and most assuredly why do you fear when your Lord is with you.

You are not alone because you have reached out to us here, your brothers and sisters. Think of the brothers and sisters we have who are persecuted around the world for their belief. The one's who must stay indoors and not go out because they loose their lives.

Do you my friend and relative and in Christ have you living words---the Bible and your Rosary. Are you a living witness in this world for your Lord? You can have Holy things around you. Holy Father is trying to gather the flock everyday in this turbulent, restless and oftentimes unseemly decadent world.
The Lord is calling you to. Listen quietly for Him and He will not abandon you regardless of your circumstances. In the early church do you think they had great churches (Which I do love even though most think they are inappropriate, yet they honor our Lord.) then. Look for your Lord and you will find him. Do you have a TV or Short wave radio that picks up EWTN? If not do you have a computer which you can get to EWTN. There is mass on there everyday. Go there for your inspiration from your church.

Peace and love in Christ.
Cynthia
2 years ago
Sorry...this is not what constitues a marriage according to God's law. Marriage must go deeper than Love...it MUST produce new life....or at least be open to the creation of it! This so-called marriage is a mockery of the state of marriage. That entire church building, then...in my opinion...has been desecrated.
eithena
2 years ago
This is the WORD waterdown and when we realise that the catholic church is the church that JESUS started
dsnk
2 years ago
i have been attending an anglican church now for the past teo years and i have found it to be a very wholly experience, i would agree that it is slipping into non-exsistance, and it is trying to popularise the faithby allow sin into the church. This i strongly disagree with.but if there was a Catholic church near me i woulfd most certainly run after it. I feel that the holy father has forgotten about wales, we are being left in the dark, and to be left to our own darek devices. i pray the lord will answer my prayer and rescue us from the pit of sin.
how can anyone justyfy abortion? Life is a most holy and sacred gift, not option or an accessory, and unless it puts the mosthers life in danger it should not even be considerd, unless even then i am wrong and i have been given faulse doctrine?
The lord our GOD, our beloved father and saviour, made us to be joined in spirit man and woman together as one. NOT woman and woman niether man and man. And whoever sayas diffrently is calling our father a lier!
Liz
2 years ago
Why not marry your pet? Your sister? Your uncle? These people are evil plain and simple.
jude
2 years ago
i think it is very clear that by their words, claiming abortion to be a blessing, and that marriage between two women is celebrated by God....this is the work of Satan.

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