The Christian Century

Despite stern warnings and threats of discipline, a Lutheran church north of Toronto has ordained an openly gay man who is legally married to another man under Canadian law.

Lionel Ketola, 45, will now serve as associate pastor at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Newmarket, Ontario, and will also assume the nonofficial title of “ambassador of reconciliation.”

Little noted in the history behind the California Supreme Court decision that gives the “right to marry” to same-sex couples are the bold steps taken over four decades by onetime Pentecostal minister Troy Perry in trying to establish legal and religious rights for gays and lesbians.

Because the blessings of two lesbian couples were called “unions” or “weddings,” not “marriages,” the highest court in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has reversed a lower court’s censure of lesbian clergywoman Jane Spahr, who performed the rites in California.

“The Church’s Unfinished Sexual Revolution” was the title of an article in the spring 2006 issue of Yale Divinity School’s Reflections magazine. In it longtime Christian ethicist James B. Nelson described some progress in church thinking about sexual ethics, but contended that the church’s agenda on sexuality remains “confusing, unsettled, unfinished.”

A United Methodist congregation in Washington, D.C., the church attended by President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton, has changed its policy to recognize—but not “celebrate”—same-gender partnerships.

A United Church of Christ congregation’s pro-gay stance puts it “at a higher risk” of litigation and property damage, a leading U.S. church insurer said in refusing to offer coverage to a Michigan congregation.

Maryland’s highest court has delivered the latest blow to supporters of same-sex marriage rights, narrowly ruling that the Maryland Constitution does not confer upon gays the right to marry each other.

A sharply divided Maryland Court of Appeals ruled September 18 that a 1973 state law that bans gay marriage does not violate the Maryland Constitution’s equal-rights provisions.

Expressing their “passionate desire” to remain a full partner in the worldwide Anglican Communion, U.S. Episcopal bishops late last month essentially reiterated an earlier statement of their intent to “exercise restraint” regarding the consecration of more gay bishops and to stand firm against authorizing public blessings of same-sex unions.

A midlevel court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has overturned a lower court ruling and declared that an activist lesbian minister should be rebuked for conducting a same-sex wedding ceremony.

The 6-2 decision against Janie Spahr was made August 18. Spahr, 65, who was set to retire from the ministry at the end of August, said she was saddened by the decision.

In a clear rebuff to conservatives in the global Anglican Communion, Episcopal Church leaders have rejected a September 30 deadline set by overseas Anglicans to roll back their church’s pro-gay policies, arguing that such decisions can be made only at the U.S. church’s triennial conventions—the next one being in 2009.