Grace Cathedral

In response to the statement The House of the Bishops of the Church of England made in their recent Pastoral Statement on Civil Partnerships, we at Grace Cathedral will continue to take delight in marrying couples both in opposite and same sex marriages and in witnessing to a love of God that is inclusive, unboundaried and focused on the well-being of all humanity. Read below for the full letter.

The House of the Bishops of the Church of England in their recent Pastoral Statement on Civil Partnerships makes this statement:

“the Church of England teaches that “sexual intercourse, as an expression of faithful intimacy, properly belongs within marriage exclusively” (Marriage: a teaching document of the House of Bishops, 1999). Sexual relationships outside heterosexual marriage are regarded as falling short of God’s purposes for human beings.” December 2019

In response to the hurt this statement has caused, and from our own deeply held beliefs about what our faith teaches us about God and humanity, the Bishop of California and the Dean, Chapter and Clergy of Grace Cathedral affirm:

1. Sexual activity meets God’s purposes most fully when it is part of a loving, faithful, committed relationship and serves to build ties of intimacy, trust and mutual cherishing.
2. The rightness of a sexual act does not depend on the gender of those engaged in it but in the love, respect and honoring of the self and other that they bring to the act.
3. Those whom God created lesbian, gay, trans, bi, straight, intersex, asexual all bear the image of the God who is beyond gender and are all equally called to loving, nurturing, intimate relationships and to the service of God in the Church and world.

We at Grace Cathedral will continue to take delight in marrying couples both in opposite and same sex marriages and in witnessing to a love of God that is inclusive, unboundaried and focused on the well-being of all humanity.

The Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus, Bishop of California
The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young, Dean
The Rev. Canon Dr. Ellen Clark-King, Vice Dean and Canon for Social Justice
Canon Lori Coleman, Canon for Finance
Canon Katherine Thompson, Canon for Development
Canon Jeffrey Hookom, Canon Precentor
The Rev. Canon Jude Harmon, Canon for Innovative Ministries
Canon Jack Fagan, Canon Director of Operations
The Rev. Mary Carter Greene, Director of Children, Youth and Family Ministry
The Rev. Kristin Saylor, Director of Formation
The Rev. Anna E. Rossi, Succentor
The Rev. Heather Erickson, Director of Senior Ministry and Social Outreach