Government proposals for same-sex marriage: QLGF responds
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Rosalind Mitchell
Dec 13, 2012, 5:29:49 PM12/13/12
to Quaker-B
It's rather refreshing to have taken on the role of media officer to an
organisation when it finds itself with something to shout about. Such
is the position I find myself in with QLGF.
It's perhaps less refreshing to have to welcome a proposal from the
current government but in the circumstances I'm happy to give credit
where credit is due (the proposals are flawed; binding the established
Church of England is regrettable but binding the non-established Church
in Wales is bonkers). But anyway, here for your interest is the press
release in full.
-----
13 December 2012
The Quaker Lesbian & Gay Fellowship (QLGF) has warmly welcomed the
government’s proposals to allow the celebration of same-sex marriage in
places of worship.
Rosalind Mitchell, media correspondent for QLGF, said today: “This is
wonderful news for all of us. Quakers have time and time again taken a
lead in seeking justice and equality. It’s rewarding that fifty years
after Towards a Quaker View of Sex was published and Quakers first began
to embrace the diversity of sexuality, we will be able to open up a
celebration of marriage in the spirit to all”.
Quakers acknowledge that of God in all people and see all people as
equal before God, in all aspects of their lives including their loving
relationships, and we wish to celebrate all of them in the same way.
ENDS
NOTES FOR EDITORS
*Towards a Quaker View of Sex*
Towards a Quaker View of Sex, by ‘a group of Friends’, was first
published in 1963. The authors remained anonymous because at the time
homosexual acts were still criminalised. Amongst other things, they
wrote:
Sexual activity is essentially neither good nor evil; it is a normal
biological activity which, like most other human activities, can be
indulged in destructively or creatively. Further, if we take
impulses and experiences that are potentially wholesome and in a
large measure unavoidable and characterize those as sinful, we
create a great volume of unnecessary guilt and an explosive tension
within the personality. When, as so often happens, the impulse
breaks through the restriction, it does so with a ruthlessness and
destructive energy that might not otherwise have been there. A
distorted Christianity must bear some of the blame for the sexual
disorders of society.
*Quaker decision on same sex relationships*
At their Yearly Meeting in York in 2009, Quakers in Britain sought a
change in the law so that same sex marriages can be prepared,
celebrated, witnessed, reported to the state, and recognised as legally
valid, without further process, in the same way as opposite sex
marriages are celebrated in Quaker meetings.
Quakers consider that they should be able to follow the insights of
their membership in celebrating life-long committed relationships
between a man and a man, or a woman and a woman, in exactly the same way
as they currently recognise the marriage of opposite sex couples.
--
Currently reading: The End of the Party by Andrew Rawnsley
organisation when it finds itself with something to shout about. Such
is the position I find myself in with QLGF.
It's perhaps less refreshing to have to welcome a proposal from the
current government but in the circumstances I'm happy to give credit
where credit is due (the proposals are flawed; binding the established
Church of England is regrettable but binding the non-established Church
in Wales is bonkers). But anyway, here for your interest is the press
release in full.
-----
13 December 2012
The Quaker Lesbian & Gay Fellowship (QLGF) has warmly welcomed the
government’s proposals to allow the celebration of same-sex marriage in
places of worship.
Rosalind Mitchell, media correspondent for QLGF, said today: “This is
wonderful news for all of us. Quakers have time and time again taken a
lead in seeking justice and equality. It’s rewarding that fifty years
after Towards a Quaker View of Sex was published and Quakers first began
to embrace the diversity of sexuality, we will be able to open up a
celebration of marriage in the spirit to all”.
Quakers acknowledge that of God in all people and see all people as
equal before God, in all aspects of their lives including their loving
relationships, and we wish to celebrate all of them in the same way.
ENDS
NOTES FOR EDITORS
*Towards a Quaker View of Sex*
Towards a Quaker View of Sex, by ‘a group of Friends’, was first
published in 1963. The authors remained anonymous because at the time
homosexual acts were still criminalised. Amongst other things, they
wrote:
Sexual activity is essentially neither good nor evil; it is a normal
biological activity which, like most other human activities, can be
indulged in destructively or creatively. Further, if we take
impulses and experiences that are potentially wholesome and in a
large measure unavoidable and characterize those as sinful, we
create a great volume of unnecessary guilt and an explosive tension
within the personality. When, as so often happens, the impulse
breaks through the restriction, it does so with a ruthlessness and
destructive energy that might not otherwise have been there. A
distorted Christianity must bear some of the blame for the sexual
disorders of society.
*Quaker decision on same sex relationships*
At their Yearly Meeting in York in 2009, Quakers in Britain sought a
change in the law so that same sex marriages can be prepared,
celebrated, witnessed, reported to the state, and recognised as legally
valid, without further process, in the same way as opposite sex
marriages are celebrated in Quaker meetings.
Quakers consider that they should be able to follow the insights of
their membership in celebrating life-long committed relationships
between a man and a man, or a woman and a woman, in exactly the same way
as they currently recognise the marriage of opposite sex couples.
--
Currently reading: The End of the Party by Andrew Rawnsley
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