A new [Washington] D.C. law means the Rev. Mary Kay Totty can now marry same-sex couples. But in the United Methodist Church, the denomination that ordained Totty two decades ago, the act could get her defrocked.
-- From "Local Methodist Church to Hold Same-sex Weddings" producer: Erin Gibson, WJLA ABC TV-7 3/11/10
A local methodist church has decided to go against the teachings of its own denomination by officiating same-sex weddings.
Dumbarton United Methodist Church is the oldest Methodist church in D.C., but has decided to add something new: same-sex weddings.
"We celebrate that and we will treat all couples equally who seek to be married in our church," said Rev. Mary Kay Totty.
Totty [age: 46] says she knows she's breaking that church law.
"We will celebrate love and loyalty wherever it's found. And love and loyalty are the same, whether it's shared between a man and a woman or two men and two women," the reverend said.
The conference that oversees Dumbarton says that if Rev. Totty actually performs a same-sex wedding at the church she will be called to answer charges against a panel of other pastors and they will decide her fate, which could include nothing or stripping her of her duties as a minister.
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From "Clergy torn over church, civil loyalties over same-sex Marriage" by Daniel Burke, posted at Washington Post 3/27/10
"The institutional church has for so many years oppressed and excluded and harmed our [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] sisters and brothers," Totty said. "We have to say: 'Enough already. These are people's lives and loves that we continue to exclude from the fullness of life in the church.'"
Nineteen other current and former United Methodist clergy in the District have signed a statement supporting Totty and Dumbarton UMC, the small, liberal congregation that she has pastored since July. Many others campaigned to legalize same-sex marriage in the city. But only Totty has been willing to put her job on the line.
As gay rights spread through civil society, an increasing number of clergy are . . . caught by conflicting loyalties, forced to choose between church law and civil law in pastoring to their gay and lesbian congregants.
In the Presbyterian Church (USA), for example, the Rev. Jane Spahr was brought up on church charges this month for marrying a lesbian couple in California in 2008, when it was briefly legal in the state. Church courts in the 2.3 million-member PCUSA have ruled against pastors who presumed to marry same-sex couples, though "blessing" such unions is allowed.
In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the nation's largest Lutheran denomination, the conflict is not between church and civil laws, but within the church itself. One policy, reaffirmed in 2005, says there is "no basis" in Scripture or tradition for establishing rites for blessing gay couples. Last summer, though, the ELCA voted to commit to "finding ways to allow congregations" to recognize same-sex partnerships.
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