Debates and Public Meetings

6th October 2004 - Andy addresses the Literary and Historical Society of University College, Dublin. His opening words in the debate are reproduced below.

This House Would Let Peter Marry Paul
Address to the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin
6th October 2004
The Rev Andy Braunston of the Metropolitan Community Church

Mr Auditor, esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen of the Literary and Historical Society, ladies and gentlemen thank you for your kind invitation to me to speak here tonight in this debate "this house would let Peter marry Paul". I speak for the motion.

I work for a church, the Metropolitan Community Church, that was founded in 1968 to offer a Christian home to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, as well as those who would define as "straight but not narrow". We exist because other churches do not accept our full equality as children of God. Of course, we perform wedding ceremonies for many Peter and Pauls, as well as many Petras and Paulines. Each year in Manchester, in the UK, I officiate at around 30 of such ceremonies.

Gay Weddings - the Reality

Lesbian and gay people seek a chance to affirm, symbolise and celebrate their unions in much the same way that heterosexuals do. For those of us who are Christian, we also want to celebrate our relationships with our family and friends and to seek God's blessing upon it. This is, after all, at the heart of marriage.

Let me describe a recent wedding I officiated at. This year in Manchester, the Pride festival organisers asked me to officiate at a mass blessing of couples. We wanted to reach out to couples who might not know they could approach churches like mine for such a ceremony. Until just before the ceremony I had no idea how many people would show up. As I stepped onto the sanctuary, I was amazed to see 120 couples before me supported by 500 of their friends and families. (Including an Anglican nun who came to support her friends.) The couples listened to my introduction, to readings from Scripture extolling love, and then promised to be faithful to each other, to love each other in both good times and bad, using the traditional words. They exchanged rings, their family and friends promised to support them and I blessed them in the name of God.

What was remarkable was that so many of my people wanted to celebrate such a ceremony. What was also remarkable was how "normal" it all was. In a world where more and more heterosexual people are choosing not to marry, it is ironic that the one group in society which wants to, can't. I get angry when I see right wing moralists, like some here tonight, decry our relationships. I get angry when I see President Bush try to "defend marriage" by banning it for gay people. He might do more good stopping people like Brittany Spears marry and divorce within 24 hours!

Gay Weddings - The History

You will hear people say that gay weddings are a dangerous deviation from Church History. I tell you that gay weddings have always been known in the history of the Church. Read John Boswell's seminal "Same Sex Unions in Pre-modern Europe". He uncovered hundreds of marriage ceremonies between gay men and between lesbians. He found them in both Eastern Orthodoxy and in Roman Catholicism. Responding to his work, the Vatican, of course, rubbished it, saying that he had confused it with friendship rituals between monks - yet the rubrics of the service expressly forbade monks and nuns, who were vowed to celibacy, from taking part in them. We use the models of David and Jonathan in Scripture and paired saints like Sergus and Bachus in tradition to show that this is nothing new.

You will hear people say that gay marriage is not normal. Well I wonder what normal is. It is normal for me to want to love and be loved. It is normal for me to want the same rights, and the same responsibilities, that my heterosexual friends have. I think this idea of "normality" is based on an absurd idea that homosexuality is either a choice or is catching. I never chose to be gay, I never chose to be left handed. About 10% of the population are left handed, about 10% are gay. This is who I am. Both my parents are heterosexual, that isn't catching obviously, so I am never sure why people think that homosexuality is!

And you will be told that the Bible condemns it. When we use the Bible we have to be careful. The Bible prescribes death to those who work on the Sabbath (Ex 35:2). It says we can sell women into slavery in Exodus 21:7 - I tried asking my brother in law what would be a good price these days for his daughter but he wasn't amused. I read in Leviticus 15:19 that I must avoid women when they are having their monthly period - the problem is I never know when they are doing this - and they get quite upset if I ask…….The Bible says, in Acts 15, that we must avoid meat with blood in it or meat that comes from animals that have been strangled. Yet I don't see my friends here condemn eating rare steak or turkey at Christmas.

The Bible says many things, yet we have to interpret what it says in the light of our knowledge now, around 2 millennia after the last words in it were written.

In Closing

Of course, I speak for this motion. I speak for it as a matter of justice and a matter of faith. But perhaps my last words of support should come from the Country and Western Singer Dolly Parton, when asked if gay people should have the right to marry, she answered "yes of course, they should suffer like the rest of us!"

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16th January 2005 - An article appeared in both the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times which contained the following reference to our text messaging ministry.

Dial-a-Prayer, Upgraded for the Wireless Age
By ROBYN CURNOW,

Published: January 16, 2005

...Faith-based phone messages are one way for churches to reach out to people who might not be regular attendees but who still feel the need for some spiritual support. "We can receive text messages from people and I can directly reply to them," said the Rev. Andy Braunston of the Metropolitan Community Church in Manchester, England, a nondenominational church catering to the gay and lesbian community. "But we can only send short messages with about 250 characters."

From his computer, Mr. Braunston sends out individual or mass texts that include messages like "We're praying for you" or "You are in our thoughts." The service started in the autumn and has had moderate success, he said. "It is just another way to reach people of the younger generation whose primary means of communication is texting," he said...

24th March 2005 - Thursday before Easter - Andy is asked to broadcast a few words suitable for the Easter season on Gay Talk on BBC GMR.

Holy Week and Easter Thoughts

It is always difficult to be hurt by someone we love and care for. It is especially difficult to be betrayed by a lover, close friend or partner. When I have been betrayed I have felt rage, almost uncontrollable anger and a very deep desire for revenge – a dish which is certainly better served ice cold. When we are let down by those we love and care for or when those we think should stand by us desert us we can be dragged into the depths of despair.

Over the next few days Christians recall events in the life of Jesus where he no doubt struggled with these emotions as those who were closest to him let him down, denied knowing him, betrayed and deserted him.

Judas, one of his closest friends, was so addicted to power that he wanted to force Jesus to lead a revolt. He betrayed him with a kiss. An act of tender intimacy became an act of treachery. Sometimes those closest to us have betrayed us with similar acts.

Peter, his reliable second in command was so addicted to fear that he denied knowing Jesus so as so save his own skin. Sometimes when people have found out the truth about us they have denied knowing us, being afraid to be associated with us.

Most of Jesus’ male friends ran way from him, and were too scared to stand with him at the foot of the cross. They were addicted to shame not wanting to be seen with a convicted criminal. We can understand Jesus’ sense of loss because people were too ashamed to be seen with him.

Yet in this tale of betrayal, denial, shame and despair there are signs of hope.

One of Jesus’ disciples, John, repeatedly described in the Bible as “the disciple Jesus loved” stood with Jesus to the end. He stood at the foot of the cross offering comfort both to Jesus and to the women who stood there with him, including his mother. We value love which does not count the cost and gives of itself.

The women, who in Jesus’ day were second or even third class citizens stood with him, followed him as he carried his cross and stayed there until the very end. We value friends who stand by us, despite the cost or the pain.

Jesus’ own behaviour in front of all this hatred is, itself, a sign of hope. He did not get angry or even, but showed love forgiving those who ran away from him, denied knowing him, crucified him and even the one who had betrayed him.

But the greatest sign of hope is what Christians celebrate on Easter Sunday – Jesus’ rising again from the dead.. God makes all things new. Death and disaster are no longer the last word. Addiction to all that drags us down can be broken. Love is greater than hatred. This is what I, and Christians mean, when we say “Happy Easter”. And so I wish you, and all whom you love, a happy and holy Easter this year.

21st April 2005 - Andy appears on GMR giving a considered view on the choice of Cardinal Ratzinger as the new Pope. His main points are:

Christians around the world were waiting with interest for the result of the conclave of the Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church. Many of us hoped for a Pope who would be more progressive and who would be able to engage with the modern world. Sadly those of us who hoped for these things still have to wait. Roman Catholic Christians see the Pope as the successor to St Peter charged by Jesus with the same mission to “feed my sheep”. This Pope will not be feeding the women sheep in his flock – he has suppressed dissident voices calling for women to be ordained. This Pope will not be feeding the lgbt sheep in his flock - he has called us “intrinsically morally disordered” with a “tendency towards objective evil”. This Pope will not be offering to feed the Christian sheep of “other folds” – he helped sabotage the talks between Anglicans and Catholics. We believe, teach and pray that people change. We can still hope that Benedict XVI will change, but until he does the pasture offered by him to his sheep is poisonous to our people, and to many others.

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14 July 2004 - Andy is sworn in as a Justice of the Peace on the Manchester bench.

29 August 2004 - Andy presides at 'The Wedding', a mass blessing at Manchester Pride in support of lesbian and gay partnership rights. The event attracts around 120 couples who celebrate their relationships in front of about 500 friends and supporters.

These are some of the genuine comments we received from participating couples:

• My partner and I just wanted to drop you a quick email to tell you how moved and humbled we were by the ceremony you performed over the Pride weekend. It touched us to our very souls and made us both understand that our faith has not been lost, just misplaced for some time. The readings were so poignant for us and having been together now for almost eight years it gave us the chance to almost start over again as a couple, a truly blessed couple. Thank you , thank you, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
• My partner and I got married at Manchester Pride and it was a most fantastic experience. You and all that helped with the arrangements were fantastic; we would just like to thank all that were involved, and say to you all that we are in love and you all made our day...thank you.
• We wanted to thank you for the beautiful wedding ceremony you celebrated for us yesterday, but we were hopelessly carried away with the excitement of the moment. The service was perfect and your words and sentiments hit exactly the right note for us.
• The atmosphere was fantastic and we still cannot get over the number of complete strangers who stopped us to say congratulations and wish us a happy life together - as positive an endorsement as the number of couples with whom we shared our special day.