Minister describes rites used in same-sex unions
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, May 22, 2000
BALTIMORE – Exactly what does happen at a same-sex union ceremony, the court asked.
William Wersenbach, a Presbyterian minister and a member of the Committee of Counsel for the Hudson River Presbytery, took the witness stand and told the members of the General Assembly’s Permanent Judicial Commission about services he had conducted.
He did so in a breezy, matter-of-fact manner that gave no indication that he felt remiss in officiating at ceremonies in which he blessed people whose sexual practices the Presbyterian Church (USA) has declared to be sinful.
“I have performed same-sex unions crafted by me and other people involved,” Wersenbach said during the appellate hearing in which the presbytery was accused of sanctioning such rites contrary to the PCUSA Constitution.
Wersenbach was asked:
Does a same-sex union have some of the same ingredients as marriage?
“It may.”
Is Scripture used?
“Not always.”
Is there music?
“Sometimes.”
Are there oaths?
“Sometimes. Promises to be faithful. We’re talking about sexual fidelity and caring about one another.”
Do you bless conjugal relations?
“In every [same-sex] holy union where I have been involved in there have already been conjugal relations. I have performed about 200 [male-female] marriages, and there were conjugal relations before in all of them.”
Do they exchange jewelry?
“Generally there’s some token of exchange.” (Weisner said a scarf was exchanged in one ceremony.)
Is there a declaration at the end such as “I now pronounce you husband and wife?”
“Sometimes the two of them state their intent to love one another, to be faithful … then it’s time for the champagne.”
Do you give a charge?
“I have … one where the charge was to be very loving. I hope the home they have is a place where kindness is spoken, where there is no suspicion, where they can count on one another.”
Similar to marriages
The issue the court was trying to ferret out was whether same-sex unions were the equivalent of marriage. In the original complaint that accused the presbytery of erring in allowing the pastors of South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., to conduct the ceremonies, the complainants said the PCUSA Constitution defined marriage as the union between a man and a woman only.
Yet, they said, participants – even South’s minister Joseph Gilmore – often referred to the rites as marriage ceremonies in violation of Biblical and constitutional standards.
The Hudson River Presbytery sanctioned same-sex unions as long as they were not considered to be marriages.
During the trial of the case before the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Northeast, the complainants repeatedly asked the court to require Gilmore to testify, but the synod court refused. The synod court upheld the presbytery’s decision that ministers, with the approval of their sessions, could conduct same-sex ceremonies and that they could use the local church buildings for the rites.