There’s been a bit of a gay shake up in England’s Quaker community. Worcester’s Quakers recently started renting out their “Friends Meeting House” to the Journey Metropolitan Community Church, a queer congregation.
While the gays can worship their lord as they see fit, the Religious Society of Friends have one stipulation: no gay weddings – a stipulation that doesn’t sit well with JMCC’s reverend, Chris Dowd.
Dowd tells Worcester News:
I think some people felt we had only been there three minutes, the Quakers have been there 300 years.There was a lot of publicity following the article in the Worcester News. I think they were slightly concerned that it looked like we were taking over their building which we’re not, just renting it twice a month. They have been very gracious about it and we are grateful to them.
Explaining the working arrangement, Quaker elder Robert Purchase says,
Worcester Quakers wish to make it clear that Mr Dowd is merely renting a room in our meeting-house twice a month to accommodate this gathering. Our policy for letting is that any group is acceptable to use whose aims and principles are not in opposition to our own beliefs.
We have let rooms to Buddhists and Muslims and are very ready to provide space for a group of fellow-citizens of varying sexuality to meet together to worship. This does not imply a wish to promote their views, nor do we condemn them.
Dowd’s prohibition on gay nuptials stems not from anti-gay attitudes, he says, but from the fact that the gays aren’t Quakers.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Another elder, Mary Speechley, wants to set the record straight and let the world know that queer Quakers are accepted just the same as their hetero peers:
We don’t want them to feel we’re casting them off. We do have homosexual Quakers who are not ashamed of being homosexual. We don’t want them to feel rejected by us.
So, gay Quakers are accepted unconditionally, but non-Quakers aren’t? That’s not very friendly.
WWH
I could be wrong, but they seem to be saying that no non-quakers (gay or straight) can get married in their meeting house.
jobradfield
this is really weird
I consider myself a Quaker and this is totally against most of what I have encountered within the Religious Society of Friends.
I became a Quaker partially because I agreed with them so much on political issues.
Now, I am not so sure.
Paul Raposo
From what I understand Quakers support equal marriage, at least they do in Canada.
“In Canada, the main “umbrella” quaker body, Canadian Yearly Meeting shares a similar view to the more liberal American Quaker groups, and stated in 2003 that they “support the right of same-sex couples to a civil marriage and the extension of the legal definition of marriage to include same-sex couples.” CYM is a member of both FUM and FGC.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaker_views_of_homosexuality
SisterBetty
Quakers in the United States first performed gay weddings in 1972 in San Francisco. Since then, Quakers have been on the forefront of gay rights.
Quaker Meeting Houses are unlike “churches”. There is no central authority and each house has the ability to make choices it sees fit – without this choice being reflective of the larger Quaker community.
Further, unlike many religious organizations, Quakers in North America fall into two distinct groups: Friends General Conference (FGC) and Friends United Meeting (FUM). FGC is made up of US and Canadian Yearly Meetings that tend to be more on the unprogrammed/liberal Quaker spectrum. FUM has member Yearly Meetings and affilated Meetings in the US, Cuba, Jamaica, Belize, Bolivia, Kenya, Tanazania, Uganda, Brundi and Rwanda, which tend to be programmed, more conservative and Christian.
Quakers believe each person’s spiritual journey is there own. Anyone is welcome and acceptance of a doctrine is not required to join.
More on Quakers and homosexuality is here: http://www.quaker.org/flgbtqc/
SisterBetty
More than 120 Quaker Meeting Houses have officially supported gay marriage through official acts called “Minutes” – a list of these and the minutes can be found here: http://www.quaker.org/flgbtqc/marriageminutes.html
These include:
“Given the importance of long-term committed relationships to the lives of the individuals involved and to society in general, and given Acton Monthly Meeting’s 1982 affirmation that the overall quality of a relationship is more important than the genders of those involved, we support marriage under the care of the meeting for all couples, irrespective of gender. Same-gender marriages, lacking the support of civil law and custom, are in particular need of the meeting’s ongoing, loving support.”
“All loving relationships are sacred and should be accepted and honored by the Meeting. All couples are entitled to the ceremony of marriage following Friends’ practices. The Meeting supports those marriages under its care.”
“We recognize that the legal rights and responsibilities of conventional marriage are denied to some unions: same-gender couples, elderly partners and unmarried opposite-gender couples. We agree that laws should permit such couples to wed and share fully in the legal rights, responsibilities and protections now only available to opposite-gender married couples.”
Ryan
I’ll stick with Unitarian Universalists.