Saturday, June 23, 2007

Alternate Wedding Bells


This weekend is the Gay Pride Parade in Toronto and word is that more than a million people will be on hand. How times change. The mayor will be there and other political leaders who would have run in the other direction a decade ago. I have gay friends who are not big fans of this parade and others like it because they feel that they feed into certain stereotypes of gays and lesbians but there is no doubt that homosexuality is out of the closet and marching down main street. Certainly what will happen today and tomorrow is no more outrageous than what happens during Mardi Gras.
I had lunch with some of our senior women last week and one commented that the Grand Marshall for the parade this year is a Bowmanville man, one some of them know from childhood. They discussed all this in a surprisingly matter-of-fact way, even though they have different opinions on the subject.
I am at the church this afternoon to conduct the wedding of a heterosexual couple. Their license has boxes for the signatures of Applicant and Joint Applicant rather than Bride and Groom, reflecting other changes in our society.
We believe in the institution of marriage as Christians because it upholds the covenant of love between two people and the fidelity of a couple within the shelter of marriage before God. We know that we live in a culture that often celebrates sexuality without commitment.
Whether it is "bride and groom" or "applicant and joint applicant," it is loving faithfulness that we uphold. That doesn't change.

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