LGBT Clergy, Ordained Ministry, Gay Marriage and Me

This is an interesting time for me, Christian lesbian, a married New Yorker, to be preparing for my ordination. I was serving in the Ministry of the potter's house, Church of the Living God in Brooklyn for many years - singing, leading praise and worship, playing the organ, choir directing, website maintenance, and recently, teaching Bible study and preaching. On May sound like much, but it does not feel that way when you're doing what you love. What I do is spend even wedding receptions. But it looks like May will be a prominent part of my job description, because gay marriage was legalized in New York just about the time when my ordination will become official.

I grew up in a church where women are rarely allowed to set foot on the pulpit, let alone preach. We wore long skirts, long hair, no makeup, no pants and no open toed shoes. I had no idea I was gay then. I had no idea I had any kind of sexual identity, then the pre-marital sex was a one-way ticket to hell. So, as a young girl and a virgin, sex is always lurking evil monster wielding a weapon capable of unbridled passion corrupting and killing all hope of divine favor an immediate thrill. So I avoid it like the plague. And I found it very easy to do because my latent lesbianism made ​​it pretty easy for me to find men's awkward advances. Older people want to marry me (they thought I was 30 when I was 15 - that's what long skirts and no makeup will do for you). But I was determined to play by the rules. So I waited for that "special man" who would come to cook, clean and bear true basketball team of children.

Well, I eventually married. For women. I was 18 when I met her sixteen years. We were the last two women in a lesbian club that I snuck in order to explore my potential for "unnatural affection." I have already left the church at that moment, but I left my God. For some reason, despite my supposedly "wicked efforts," said the same God who spoke through me in tongues of angels, to alleviate all of my teenage angst and gave me "before going", he continued to do all those things "post outputs. "So I followed my God and my heart and married a woman who is now my partner in ministry and life. We have been married first in my church, and again in 2010 in DC so we can take pictures in front of the White House waving our certificate, and that is the case for the state legalized same-sex marriage. Will you marry for the third time in New York today that the rule of law in our home? I do not know yet. But if I can get another ring out of a job, chances are you'll be making sure it happens.

In the meantime, there are other marriages would be performed, and other activities to be implemented. In a culture that is alternately jaded with the concept of God, frustrated with the Christian belief in the inability to live up to their ideals or disgusted judgmental attitudes of faith in the supporters, a step I do for my servant. Claiming to be called by God and that possess gifts that will undoubtedly help to make sense of life and the role of God in him, I take up the mantle passed down by more than 2,000 years. As a minister of "coming of age" during the state legalized gay marriage, I am grateful for the work and outdoor-affirming clergy who have gone before me and made this victory possible. But I hope that one day I will not be seen as "gay minister" who can perform "gay marriages." I pray I'll just be a child of God qualified to help celebrate that special moment when two become one, and life, as a result, it becomes increasingly rich.

But until then, one of the most important things you can do to make our marriage all the more worth it to make sure our marriage will last. My biggest fear is that the rush to the church and City Hall will be all too soon after that rush to the divorce courts. So many conservatives have expressed concern that our marriage would somehow destroy the sanctity of the ceremony. I hope that every covenant made ​​LGBT couples in New York will put another nail in the coffin of the myth. I want our marriage to be examples of love and commitment - thoughtful agreement between mortal and divine. Because God knows, "it's not good for man to be alone ."

Therefore, suffer this newly minted minister who married the same person twice, and remained married to her for nearly a decade to offer a few quick tips for those about to take marriage plunge:

Marriage shall be entered into until you are sure you can live with all the characteristics of your partner that you know you can not change. If you can not learn to love what -. You did not love the whole person

Make sure you and your partner are not tripping over the baggage from your past. Consult your faith leader and get counseling.

Do not look for someone you love, if you have not yet learned to love -. May just draw abuser

Make sure you understand what you want from the relationship and where you want it to go. If you want five children and your partner wants one - it's going to be a big deal

In the end, you deserve the best and the best out there. Do not settle for less.

Commitment is something God takes us seriously. He has never left me, even when I switched from long skirts to pants and from the pews to the pulpit ministry. When you give your life to Christ, you become engaged him in a relationship that lasts for eternity. God does not expect his children to marry on a whim, and then ostaviti.Twain become "one flesh." "What God has joined together let no man put asunder." The world is watching - be it that the right