Minister stops
performing weddings to protest marriage ban

A Massachusetts Episcopal minister will refuse to perform weddings in protest of the ban on same-sex unions. The Reverend Robert Hirschfeld, rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst, Mass., will be joined by two other priests who will not perform any weddings.

"We are called to join the fast that our homosexual brothers and sisters in Christ have had to observe all their lives," he said, according to the Associated Press.

"I am convinced that when gays and lesbians are baptized, they become full members of the body of Christ," said the Reverend Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, who is also protesting. "They are not partial members or conditional members or second-class members." (The Advocate)