July 30, 2010

Episcopal Diocese of Maryland Bishop Eugene Sutton has issued guidelines for clergy who wish to conduct same-gender blessings.

Sutton also recommended for trial use a rite developed by a committee of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, along with a document that the Southern Ohio committee wrote, in Bishop Thomas Breidenthal's words, "stating the theological convictions that underlie the policy" to allow same-gender blessings in that diocese.

The original Southern Ohio documents are online at http://www.diosohio.org/How%20we%20work/blessing-of-same-gender-unions.html.

No priest of the Diocese of Maryland will be required to perform same-gender blessings, Sutton said, adding that he respects "the pastoral judgment and decisions of the clergy under my pastoral oversight."

Priests who do perform blessings must follow the diocese's requirements for marriages, the bishop said. "Couples shall be prepared to make a lifelong commitment to each other, and must have received adequate pastoral counseling prior to the union," Sutton said.

No priest from outside of the diocese may enter Maryland to perform such a blessing unless the priest's diocese also allows same-gender blessings, according to Sutton. And, members of other dioceses cannot have their same-gender relationships blessed in Maryland unless their home dioceses allow blessings.

Sutton said that he based his actions on the permission given by the Episcopal Church's General Convention in July 2009 to bishops to "provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church." Resolution C056, Sutton noted, also said that the convention "honor[s] the theological diversity of this church in regard to matters of human sexuality."

C056 also called for the collection and development of theological and liturgical resources for blessing same-gender unions. The church's Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music has begun that work with the help of a $400,000 grant to Church Divinity School of the Pacific, an Episcopal Church-affiliated seminary based in Berkeley, California.

Episcopal News Service