The Washington National Cathedral, will soon be a place that will host same-sex marriages. The Associated Press reported that the cathedral will be one of the first Episcopal congregations that will host marriages for the LGBT community.
It is the nations most prominent church and has hosted inaugurations for presidents and funerals for high-profile political figures such as Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. The AP reported that the Rt. Rev. Marrian Edgar Budde, who is the Episcopal bishop of Washington, decided to allow same sex marriages in the church.
The AP reported that each priest can then decided whether to perform the same-sex marriaages. The Very Rev. Gary Hall said to the AP, "I read the Bible as seriously as fundamentalists do. And my reading of the Bible leads me to want to do this because I think it's being faithful to the kind of community that Jesus would have us be."
Hall believes this move is a chance to change the nation. "As a kind of tall-steeple, public church in the nation's capital, by saying we're going to bless same-sex marriages, conduct same-sex marriages, we are really trying to take the next step for marriage equality in the nation and in the culture," he said to the AP.
The AP reported that Hall began performing same-sex marriages in 1990 when he worked at the All Saints Church in Pasadena, California.
The Human Rights Campaign was very much in support of the decision. "Today, the church sent a simple but powerful message to LGBT Episcopalians - you are loved just the way you are, and for that we embrace you," said the Rev. MacArthur Flournoy,deputy director of HRC's religion and faith program, reported the AP.
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