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What The Church Says

In 2015, the Episcopal Church embraced marriage equality by eliminating language defining marriage as between a man and a woman and provided new rites for marriage, allowing them to be used by same-sex or opposite-sex couples. In 2018, the 79th General Convention of The Episcopal Church meeting in July 2018 in Austin, continued the authorization for the two new marriage rites: The Witnessing and Blessing of a Marriage and The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage 2. These are both authorized for use in the Diocese of Georgia.

As noted in these resolutions: “no bishop, priest, deacon or lay person should be coerced or penalized in any manner, nor suffer any canonical disabilities, as a result of his or her theological objection to or support for the 78th General Convention’s action contained in this resolution.” If their home parish does not offer marriage to same sex couples, the bishop and staff of the Diocese of Georgia will assist the couple in finding a member of the clergy who will marry them in an Episcopal Church in order to fulfill the stated intention of to assure “that all couples have convenient and reasonable congregation access to these rites.”

A book of liturgical resources related to same-sex marriage: Liturgical Resources I: I Will Bless You, and You Will Be a Blessing is available from Church Publishing here.  Free downloads of the two new marriage rites are available here: The Witnessing and Blessing of a Marriage and The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage 2. The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage (BCP, p. 423 ff) and The Blessing of a Civil Marriage (BCP, p. 433ff) are Prayer Book rites and thus should continue to be used as appropriate. 

The following documents provide Model Congregational Guidelines, and give the text of The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage 2 in Word format:

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