Surrounded by soaring stained-glass windows and elaborate statues of saints, the two wives clasped hands as a Catholic priest in white vestments blessed them in the sanctuary of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Lincoln Park.
The priest then asked God to increase and consecrate their love for one another, adding that the rings they had exchanged are a sign of their commitment and fidelity. Then in early May, the religious order Williams is a member of issued an apology “for the nature of a blessing he performed for a same-sex couple at his church on April 21.”
Around the same time that controversy flared over their blessing, the United Methodist Church — one of the largest Protestant denominations in the United States — made watershed strides to embrace its LGBTQ faithful,For Kelli Knight, who served as a Methodist pastor in the Chicago area for about 14 years, the end of these bans “was almost a surreal moment.”
But she decided to put it back online, as “it was likely we were one of the first couples in the country, if not the world, to have this” blessing. They were preparing to move to Arizona, where they now live; Kelli Knight is planning to start a new job as associate pastor of a Methodist church in Tucson in July. The blessing was to be one of their last milestones together in Chicago.
— it still maintained a ban on gay marriage, adding that these blessings cannot include set rituals, clothing or gestures that would typically take place in a wedding.the pope’s stance on same-sex blessings, with bishops in Africa, Poland and other parts of the world refusing to implement the policy.
“Any person or any object is suitable for blessing. In that sense, Fiducia Supplicans didn’t say anything new,” he said. “But it said that … in a concrete application, LGBTQ people are in the church. We see you. We recognize that the relationships that you’re in, the experiences that you’re having, we recognize that those are real. And we’re welcoming you and we want you to feel welcomed in the church. We want to accompany you.
“I wasn’t sure if there was a future for me in ministry,” Kelli Knight said. “I didn’t want to be serving continually looking over my shoulder, worrying about being charged. Worrying about going on trial. Worrying about the possibility of being defrocked.”
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