At Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church (MAPC), all are welcome to Christ’s Table and to the full life and worship of the church. In 1991, MAPC adopted its “Policy on the Inclusion of Gays and Lesbians,” which states that “our loving welcome is unconditional” and further affirms a commitment to “full civil rights and justice for all persons, regardless of sexual orientation, in society and the church.”   

These core values are embodied in MAPC’s “Statement on Covenant Services (Holy Unions, Marriages, Etc.)” – a progressive and inclusive new service model that celebrates the covenant of love between two persons that was adopted on January 28, 2004 by the Session of MAPC. This groundbreaking, nondiscriminatory policy, simply stated, declares that all persons will be treated equally when seeking God’s grace on their union and pledge to one another. 

Our world, country, and faith institutions continue to struggle with the limited definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.  Our own denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), sends mixed messages on the subject.  Its Constitution on one hand states that “marriage is a gift God has given to all humankind for the well-being of the entire human family.” On the other hand, the Constitution maintains that marriage belongs uniquely to “one man and one woman,” thus excluding our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. 

In the spirit of equality for all persons, MAPC strives to see the question of marriage through the eyes of an all-loving, inclusive God rather than through the eyes of a society susceptible to discrimination and heterosexism.  Therefore, its Session will not approve the use of its facilities for any service that is not available for heterosexual and homosexual couples alike. 

As the MAPC Session prayerfully examined the prejudice within our nation and the Presbyterian Church (USA) about marriage, it rediscovered the essential Christian truth that couples do not become married by the declaration of a pastor.  They make a commitment to and marry one other with the exchange of their promises.  Acting upon this truth, in any type of covenant service at MAPC, it is the couple who will declare their relationship and covenant, not the Pastor. At this moment of commitment, MAPC is ready and honored to bear witness.
 

Statement on Covenant Services (Holy Unions, Marriages, Etc.)

In 1991, the Session of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church adopted a policy of inclusion declaring “that gays and lesbians are part of God’s good creation and that they, no less than heterosexuals, are meant to enjoy God’s gifts of love, joy, and intimacy.”  That policy has been reaffirmed every year since. In simplest language, the Session here, in faith, reiterates its conviction that homosexual practice in and of itself is not a sin.  This conviction makes it impossible for the Session to approve the use of facilities for marriages in the limited and discriminatory sense given to marriage by the Book of Order.

  Regarding marriage, the Constitution of the PC(USA) sends mixed messages.  On one hand, the Book of Order says, “Marriage is a gift God has given to all humankind for the well-being of the entire human family” (W-4.9001).  On the other hand, in its repeated use of the phrase “a man and a woman” and similar terms (for instance, W-4.9001) the Book of Order excludes whole categories of persons from God’s gift of marriage “to all humankind.”  The Session of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church strives to see the question of marriage through the eyes of an all-loving, inclusive God rather than through the eyes of a society susceptible to discrimination and heterosexism.

Because Mount Auburn strives to see marriage this way, the Session has adopted a nondiscriminatory policy on the use of facilities for worship services for couples who wish to celebrate their faithful and monogamous unions with each other.  It will not approve the use of facilities for any service that is not available for heterosexual and homosexual couples alike.  “Those responsible for worship are to be guided by . . . the needs and particular circumstances of the worshiping community” (Book of Order W-1.4001).  Accordingly, the Session will consider and approve the use of facilities for worship services for two persons who wish to create their faithful and monogamous relationship as a marriage, as a holy union, or in some other form of faithful and monogamous covenant.

Because the Book of Order does not define marriage in a manner that includes all the identities of believers in our congregation, the Session will approve the use of facilities only for services for unions of two persons to the exclusion of all others that are liturgically distinct from marriage as currently defined in the Book of Order.  It will approve only those in which the pastor makes no declaration that a marriage has come into existence (contrast W-4.9004).   Rather, the church’s responsibility will be that of a witness to “the vows of those who desire to be married” (Book of Confessions 6.136).   For those who wish to create a marriage, Mount Auburn adheres to the church’s ancient and traditional theology of marriage, well preserved to this day, for example, in Roman Catholic teaching:  “the spouses, as ministers of God's grace, mutually confer upon each other the Sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church.”  If and when such vows are made, the pastor will remind the couple that the vows are “not to be made to any creature, but to God alone” (6.125).  Marriage in the Presbyterian church is not a sacrament and thus should not be thought to depend on any word spoken by the pastor (6.151-52).  While the pastor and others may be a witness to vows, God alone knows whether the vows have come from the heart and thus whether a marriage has come into existence.  We believe that it is the couple and only the couple who, with the grace of God, create the marriage.

While the Session of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church is called by principle to “affirm and uphold the essential tenets of the Presbyterian Church (USA) as embedded in its constitution…,” it is also called to “protest and decline to be governed by any provision, policy, report, ruling, amendment, or other statement anywhere in the life of our church and the PC(USA) that imposes discrimination, attempts to limit the love of God, or implies a second-class status of membership” (Statement of Principles, adopted by the Session January 22, 2003).  Together with other churches and individuals within the PC(USA), Mount Auburn will work to have the exclusionary language on marriage in our Book of Order amended so that the Presbyterian Church (USA) does indeed “give full expression to the rich diversity within its membership and . . . provide means which will assure a greater inclusiveness leading to wholeness in its emerging life.”  (G-4.0403).   “To the extent that forms, actions, languages, or settings of worship . . . deny emerging needs and identities of believers, that worship is not faithful to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ” (W-1.2006a, our emphasis; see also G-4.0401-0402).

For more than a decade, Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church has enjoyed benefits of diversity that are unusual in our denomination, with a significant minority (currently, about one-third) of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender members. We make this statement public to share our witness to Reformed thought, that we are all brothers and sisters in God, and to the deepened faith gained from the individual gifts we each bring to the church.