Church hosts engagement party for gay couples - Tonight

Tulsa - “Pro- family, pro-children, and pro-justice,” says All Souls Senior Minister Marlin Lavanhar about the ruling that Oklahoma’s gay marriage ban is unconstitutional. “This decision should be celebrated by All Americans and religious people. No majority vote should be able to deny a minority the equal rights guaranteed by our Constitution.”

In support of the right of every person to legally marry the person they love, All Souls is hosting an Engagement Party Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014, for all couples who look forward to being married in Oklahoma once the new law is put into place. Their family, friends and allies are also invited.

The party will be at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, 2952 South Peoria. Ministers and churches interested in performing marriage rites for all Oklahomans are also invited to participate. A press conference will be held at 6:00 p.m., immediately preceding the festivities.

He decried the Governor and other Oklahoma state officials’ unsupportive responses on the brink of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday weekend. As Governor Fallin claims this ruling “overturns the will of the people of Oklahoma” she forgets that when Dr. King was marching for equality the majority of Oklahoman’s thought that African American Oklahoman’s should have separate bathrooms, schools and restaurants. The strength of the US Constitution is that it will not allow the tyranny of the majority to deny the rights of a minority. The recent marriage-equality ruling in Oklahoma is one more triumph of American Democracy to create justice for all.

All Souls Unitarian Church is a congregation of 2000 members that was established in Tulsa in 1921. It is dedicated to religion but not to creed. Neither upon itself nor upon its members does it impose a test of doctrinal formulas. It regards love of God and humankind and the perfecting of our spiritual nature as the unchanging substance of religion and the essential gospel of Jesus. Consecrating itself to these principles, it aims at cultivating reverence for truth, moral character, and insight, helpfulness to humanity, and the spirit of communion with the infinite. It welcomes to its worship and fellowship all who are in sympathy with a religion thus simple and free. The church has been performing “Services of Union” for same sex couples since the early 1980’s.

The Gayly – February 12, 2014 @ 3:05pm