Casey Blake of the Citizen-Times reports that the clergy from All Souls Episcopal Cathedral in Asheville have joined as plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of North Carolina’s marriage laws:
“We do not have separate baptisms, separate Eucharists, separate ordinations, nor separate burials for people in the church based on their sexual orientation. We should not have separate marriage services either,” said Rev. Todd Donatelli, one of four clergy from All Souls Episcopal Church in Asheville signing on as plaintiffs in the amended lawsuit.
“Pastorally, I have been troubled for a couple of decades with the state’s intrusion into determining who we will declare and not declare as worthy of those sacramental rights,” Donatelli said. “It creates a two-tiered system for families, that some are deemed more ‘valid’ than other. We only have one tier of marriage in our faith.”
“It is my hope that the state will get off determining spiritual values, and allow couples and their congregation to determine which sacramental rights they are entitled to receive.”
All Souls is in the Diocese of Western North Carolina.