An article from "CentreCOMM", May 1996 ...

FREE TO LOVE ...
Same-Sex Marriage
by Rev Robert John

The history of The Independent Church of Australia's Covenant of Love service and the current debate surrounding the issue of gay marriage is discussed in this article by Rev Robert John  

AN ACT OF LOVE occurred on 7 April 1973 in Perth, Western Australia. Reverend Mario Schoenmaker blessed the love between two people, Elizabeth and Agnes, and acknowledged their commitment to share their lives together in a loving, supportive relationship. The Covenant of Love service was an act of love on two accounts. There was the love of the couple - which Elizabeth and Agnes wanted to acknowledge in public - and there was the love expressed in the bestowal of a blessing upon their relationship. Rev Mario's great love for the human soul helped him break through the barriers erected by bigots and moralists, and recognise, value and accept without judgement the love he witnessed in the lives of Elizabeth and Agnes. He acted to remove the stigma and guilt that clung to same-sex relationships in those days and to give honour and recognition to love.

"Theirs was a love I have rarely come across ... theirs was a devotion to one another which to my way of thinking is purely divine ... for LOVE, any love must always have a divine origin," he said in an interview with Hobart's Saturday Evening Mercury, 16 June, 1973.

In an interview with The Sunday Examiner-Express that same day, Rev Mario explained part of his motivation in conducting Australia's first 'gay marriage': "Someone has to take away the guilt feelings experienced by these two girls, and other men and women who are living in their own kind of relationship ... Australia is too conservative. It's about time laws on homosexuality were scrapped - not modified, but scrapped completely."

Two Main Issues
In these press interviews - part of nation-wide media coverage following revelations of this 'gay marriage' by the ABC TV's This Day Tonight program - Rev Mario Schoenmaker clearly identifies the two most significant issues involved in the push for acceptance and legalisation of same-sex marriage:

• The FREEDOM TO LOVE another person, regardless of gender, and to have that love and relationship accepted and acknowledged.
  

• The right to LEGAL RECOGNITION AND PROTECTION, ensuring that same-sex couples are treated fairly and equitably in a whole range of areas: with the right to a voice in one another's medical treatment and funeral arrangements; the right to be recognised as next-of-kin; the right to adopt; the right to equitable superannuation.

Today, some twenty-three years later, these two main themes remain central to the current world-wide debate surrounding the issue of same-sex marriage.

1973 ... The Olden Days
From the relative comfort of our present-day vantage point, Rev Mario's actions in 1973 in performing the first reported ceremony of its kind in Australia may not seem all that radical and daring. Don't forget, though, that 1973 was like the dark ages in terms of societal acceptance of homosexuals. The word "gay" had an entirely different meaning, although there wasn't much to be jolly about. People lost their job if they were discovered or even suspected of being homosexual.

Homosexual activity between two men was illegal, a criminal offence risking a jail term. This is still the case in two Australian states: Western Australia and Tasmania. During February 1995, in the run-up to the state election in Tasmania, the governing Liberal Party promised to increase the maximum jail term for men engaging in homosexual acts by four years to twenty-five years imprisonment! (Lesbians have not faced the same treatment in terms of the law. In our legal and legislative tradition, based upon the English system, there have been no laws making lesbian sexual activity a criminal offence - supposedly because Queen Victoria refused to believe that sexual acts between two women were physically possible!)

The churches, together with much of the community, considered homosexuality unnatural, unhealthy, abnormal, immoral, an abomination!

In 1973 there was no Midsumma Festival and no Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras; there were no specialist health care services for gays and lesbians; there were no (openly) gay members of the Australian parliament; there were no "Outrage" and no "Campaign" gay magazines available at the corner newsagency; there were a few gay and lesbian entertainment venues; and hardly anyone 'came out of the closet' because there were sections of society that didn't even suspect that a closest existed, let alone human beings whose greatest desire was the freedom to be themselves!

It was in this environment that Rev Mario Schoenmaker and his assistant, Colin Read, dared to bless the love between two women.

The First Covenant
In a simple service in CAMP's clubrooms on 7 April 1973, Rev Mario granted his blessing upon Elizabeth and Agnes, their love for each other and their relationship and commitment to spend their lives together. Elizabeth and Agnes had been introduced to Rev Mario through CAMP - Campaign Against Moral Persecution - a West Australian gay rights organisation.

If later newspaper reports are to be believed, Elizabeth and Agnes embarked upon a honeymoon prior to returning to their work as nurses in a Perth hospital and a quiet 'wedded' bliss.

Perhaps naively, Rev Mario returned to the quiet routine of his ministry as Pastor of the Congregational Church in the Perth suburb of Victoria Park.

The quiet was shattered, however, when news of "Australia's first lesbian 'marriage' " was broadcast around Australia and internationally. On Monday, 7 May, 1973 Rev Mario was interviewed on the ABC TV's current affairs program This Day Tonight. The next day a report appeared in The West Australian newspaper. A plethora of radio, TV and press reports, interviews and comment ensued with Rev Mario being flown to Sydney to be interviewed on the Bob Rogers Show. Mike Willessee also interviewed Rev Mario on A Current Affair. Mr Willessee also produced a highly sympathetic one-hour documentary.

Many reports presented the basic facts and then focussed on comment, generally condemnatory and derisive, from church leaders and others. Some didn't even waste time with detail:

Speak of the Devil
And some people think of this man
Marius Schoenmaker has been described as a devil worshipper, homosexual, son of Satan and a pervert ...
(Ingrid Anagnostou in "The Sunday Examiner-Express", 16 June, 1973)

A few reports concerned themselves more with 'background details', such as an article which appeared on 14 June, 1973 under the headline "Clergyman's Perth Lesbian Ceremony: Alice Marries Eleanor". This newspaper report, out of concern for the involved parties, changed their names to protect their privacy. It appears to be the only press report to have expressed concern for the couple's privacy. Interestingly, it is also the only press report I have discovered to have revealed 'private' information about the two women. We're told of their month-long eastern states honeymoon during which they booked into motels using Eleanor's surname; that they sleep together in a double bed and share the household chores; that during the interview, Eleanor - "a previously married but now divorced, thin English woman, with short, wavy black hair and a strong North-England accent, who doesn't wear perfume and make-up and is the acknowledged dominant partner" - frequently lights two cigarettes at once, then hands one to Alice - "a plumpish part-Maori from the north island of New Zealand!"

It is significant that nearly all the media coverage fails to mention the primary motivation behind Agnes' and Elizabeth's Covenant of Love ceremony - LOVE! When love is discussed in the press clippings, it is in the context of a quote from Rev Mario. Time and time again Rev Mario spoke of love; time and time again love was buried under the heaped-up condemnation and trivia.

Condemnation by the Church
Ministers and representatives of many churches were quick to condemn both Rev Mario and his actions, some even declaring him a heretic and demanding his resignation or defrocking. Rev Geoffrey Barnes, president of the Congregational Union of Australia of which the Victoria Park Congregational Church was a member, said in a press interview with Russell Deiley: "I think what he (Rev Mario Schoenmaker) is doing is bordering on heresy". Rev Barnes also said in the interview that he doubted a homosexual could be a Christian, but "in the Church's eye, he is still a person". Such condescending comments came with a statement of the often-quoted necessary pre-requisite for marriage: "the Church as a whole obviously accepts Christian marriage as a marriage between male and female".

News reports told of the Western Australian Union of Congregational Churches being inundated with letters and telephone calls of complaint and concern. In a letter to ministers and church secretaries dated 13 June, 1973, Rev David Oxley (head of the W.A. Congregational Union) advised that "a number of members of our churches and several churches themselves have expressed concern and dismay". Rev Mario Schoenmaker stated at the time, in his editorial in CentreCOMM and in various press interviews, that none of the ministers who were expressing outrage and complaint had contacted him to discuss the issues involved or communicate their concerns. He also stated that he had received many communications of support and encouragement for his actions, and at meetings of the Victoria Park Congregational Church the membership also expressed their overwhelming support.

The Consequences
In response to the extensive media coverage and the letters of complaint, the Union of Congregational Churches in Western Australia decided on two forms of action:

• It created a study group on homosexuality. Minute 122/73 records the acceptance of a motion "that a social responsibilities group be established to give consideration to the question of homosexuality with special regard for the ethical and theological issues involved". Along with psychiatrists and other professionals, an invitation was extended to Rev Mario to participate in the study group.
  

• An advisory committee was also established, to investigate and report upon Rev Mario and his actions. It was also to investigate whether his church was upholding 'true Congregationalism'. There was concern not just with his actions and statements concerning homosexual marriage -- there was also talk that he was espousing reincarnation, and a newspaper advertisement for courses in metaphysics had caught the Union's attention (Minute 129/30).

The Union of Congregational Churches in Western Australia Inc. convened a Special Council Meeting at 7.30pm on Friday, 15 March, 1974. The purpose of the Special Council Meeting was to receive the report of the Study Group on Homosexuality presented by Rev D. Robinson. The minutes of the meeting (Minutes 33-38/74) record the outcomes of the study group's considerations. Resolutions 4, 5 and 6 are the important ones.

After comments, questions and general discussion on a number of issues arising from the report, the following resolutions were presented for debate. It was moved, seconded and carried.

1. That the report be received.

2. That the churches be encouraged to recognise the complexity of the problem and to study all relevant material in making their response as Christians to the homosexual and homosexuality.

3. That to that end the Churches be supplied with copies of the report and a complete list of all documents, papers, books etc received by the group.

4. That Churches and Ministers be encouraged to accept homosexuals within the pastoral care of their fellowship on the same basis as all other persons.

5. That this Union itself recognising the complexity of the problems does not endorse the general concept of a public ceremony affirming a homosexual relationship, but recognises, too, that this may occasionally be a minister's or a church's motive response to persons seeking such.

6. That the Council of the Union of Congregational Churches in Western Australia support attempts to remove from the criminal code, homosexual acts in private between consenting adult males.

Resolutions 4, 5 and 6 can hardly be construed as condemnation of Rev Mario's actions; rather, they indicate a positive step forward in the Congregational Church's approach to homosexuality. Unfortunately this didn't amount to much, for the following year the Congregational Church would join with the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches to form the Uniting Church in Australia and the power of these resolutions to change the attitudes and practices of the church would be lost.

Independence
During the period of upheaval surrounding the controversy of the celebration of the first Covenant of Love - Rev Mario's commitment to continuing the practice, the Congregational Union's investigation, and the forming of the Uniting Church in Australia (a period of two years from mid-1973 to mid-1975) - Rev Mario Schoenmaker, Rev Colin Read and the membership of the Victoria Park Congregational Church (by that time known as "The Centre") considered their position and future. On 24 April, 1975, Mrs Kay Mattiske, The Centre's Honorary Secretary, wrote to the WA Congregational Union and informed them of The Centre's decision to resign as a member church of the Union. Rev Mario Schoenmaker forwarded his letter of resignation as a Congregational Minister on 11 June, 1975.

The old had passed away, now the new could be born ...

On Advent Sunday, 29 November, 1975, The Centre was declared an independent denomination and received recognition as such from the Government of Australia. Partly as a consequence of the challenges and upheavals experienced in the controversy surrounding 'homosexual marriages' a new church was born, committed to the principles of spiritual freedom, human dignity, individuality and love - the same principles espoused time and again throughout the debate by Rev Mario and Rev Colin.

Covenants of Love Continue
Through the 1970's many Covenant of Love services were celebrated. One couple found the certificate they received at their blessing service useful when one partner became seriously ill. Having the certificate assisted the other partner gain hospital visitation rights and a voice in medical treatment.

Another significant Covenant of Love was celebrated in the The Centre's Melbourne chapel on 7 March, 1987. I was one of the participants and so was my partner. I am an ordained priest within The Centre, and my partner, Richard Hall, also an ordained priest and a psychologist. We declared our love for one another and our commitment to our life relationship in a Covenant of Love ceremony conducted by Rev Mario Schoenmaker and Rev Colin Read and attended by nearly all of The Centre's members, our family and friends. It was a clear demonstration that The Centre upheld in practice the principles it proclaims; it truly does not discriminate on the basis of sexuality and gender, even with regard to its priesthood. There is a loving acceptance of gays and lesbians - indeed, all people - within The Centre's community and fellowship.

Not a Gay Church
The Centre's celebration of Covenant of Love services, its acceptance of gays and lesbians within the membership and religious orders of the church, its commitment to true individuality and spiritual freedom, and its teaching that all love is divine in origin - all these things do not, however, make The Centre a 'gay' church. The Centre welcomes and accepts people without regard to their sexual orientation and practices, not because of them.

The Centre continues, as it has since the first Covenant of Love was celebrated on 7 April 1973, to encourage the expression of divine love and to fight against its imprisonment within limited, rigid, narrow prejudices and bigotry. It continues to stand for freedom and love. It holds fast to its spiritual principles, grounded in the metaphysical and esoteric wisdom that forms the basis of its heritage and tradition. It strives to meet humanity's spiritual needs.

Although it has never claimed that its Covenant of Love service constitutes a 'marriage' in the legal sense, it continues to make the blessing offered in the Covenant available to all who wish to declare their love for one another.

Where to Now?
As a church concerned primarily with people's spiritual welfare, The Centre does not engage in political activism which is at the heart of the various gay and lesbian rights movements. These organisations continue to challenge the churches, the government, the legal system and society as a whole in a quest for legal recognition of same-sex marriage and/or associated issues.

Over the years advances have been made. In 1989 Denmark became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage. Eigil Axgil, a 67 year-old Danish citizen, said before marrying his partner Axel Axgil, aged 74, in the world's first legal same-sex marriage: "We have been together 40 years, and in these 40 years we were waiting for this". Norway and Sweden have now joined Denmark in legalising same-sex marriages. The Netherlands is moving in the same direction, with the Government opposition committing itself to the legalisation process when it gains government. In France and Belgium, cities and local government have begun recognising gay and lesbian partnerships.

Presently in the USA state of Hawaii, a court case proceeds seeking to force the government to issue a gay couple with a marriage license, in effect legalising same-sex marriage. The constitution of the USA requires each state to give "full faith and credit" to the laws of every other state. This would mean that same-sex couples marrying in Hawaii and returning to their home state would have to be awarded rights of inheritance and child custody. This possibility has caused outrage amongst conservative Christians and resulted in a push in many states to legislate against same-sex marriage.

Also in the USA, meeting in late-March 1996 the 1750 members of the Central Conference of American Rabbis voted overwhelming to endorse the legalisation of same-sex marriages.

Wednesday, 8 March 1995, saw Hungary's Constitutional Court strike down the law barring homosexuals from common-law marriages, effectively making it the first East European nation to extend traditional rights to same-sex couples.

Australia and New Zealand are also witnessing change.

Change Attitudes and the Law Will Follow
A major step in achieving legislative change and a legal recognition of same-sex marriage is to first of all bring about change within the attitudes of the society in which the legislative change is sought. Live your life the way you want it to be, now! The government and judiciary tend to follow public opinion rather than shape it. When community attitudes change, the law follows.

In Melbourne's "Age" newspaper in 1995, Virginia Trioli reported on a lesbian couple in an article entitled When gay lovers are the marrying kind. "Jane and Juliana were tired of waiting for the law to catch up with their lives, so they married themselves." Jane and Juliana conducted a commitment ceremony for themselves, by themselves, during a weekend away. They then posted a card to their family and friends:

Dear Friends,
Jane and Juliana were married on Saturday, 15 July, 1995. The ceremony, witnessed by 2 dozen oysters and 1 crayfish, was held at Lorne, Victoria.

When the law is changed and we can achieve legal married status we may repeat the ceremony with friends attending.

Other options do exist for gay and lesbian couples wanting to formalise their relationship and make a public declaration of their love and commitment. In addition to the Covenant of Love service offered by The Independent Church of Australia, Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) offers Holy Union Ceremonies. MCC is a Christian church established in the USA by the Rev Troy Perry. MCC expresses its ministry primarily to the gay and lesbian community. Rev Troy Perry visited Rev Mario in Perth several times during the mid-1970s. On one visit to The Centre, Rev Perry was made an honorary member of the church; he returned the gesture by proclaiming all those attending the Sunday morning service to be honorary homosexuals! As a result of his visits, MCC has established its gay ministry in Australia's major cities.

The Sexuality Taskforce of the Uniting Church in Australia is currently compiling a discussion paper on a range of sex issues, including homosexuality, for consideration and discussion at the church's next national conference. The current position of the Uniting Church is that gay men and lesbians are to be welcomed into the pastoral care of the church. 'Pastoral care' has not, as yet, been clearly defined and so individual ministers are left to decide the nature of this care. A minister of the Uniting Church told of 'blessings' and 'commitment services' performed by a number of ministers in the church, but said such independent action risked the disapproval and likely 'disciplinary measures' of the church hierarchy.

Anecdotal evidence also exists concerning ministers in other denominations who, usually in secret, conduct same-sex blessings or commitment services.

Several civil celebrants also advertise their availability to conduct commitment services and funerals for the gay and lesbian community.

Although these various 'gay marriages' currently have no legal standing, they do provide an opportunity to make a public statement on the nature of homosexual love and relationships. The family, friends and other people attending these services cannot help but be touched by the demonstration of love they experience. Love becomes real and helps eradicate the fear and prejudice of the perhaps previously unknown. Through such experience, attitudes are changed.

A Little Knowledge Goes a Long Way
In the debate on same-sex marriage that is emerging world-wide at present, much of the debate is fuelled, and clouded, by highly emotional discussion and ignorance rather than knowledge. Ignorant claims and false assumptions must be challenged, but challenged by knowledge rather than emotive reaction.

For example, a television debate on 14 March 1996 entitled "Marriage Rights" was screened on the ABC TV's Lateline program and it focussed on same-sex marriage. During the debate, Robert Knight, Director of Cultural Studies with the USA conservative lobby group The Family Research Council, defended his anti-gay stance with statements proclaiming that it was a 2,000 year old Christian tradition that marriage was only possible between a man and a woman. Neither the program presenter nor the two gay activists participating in the program challenged this false notion. Perhaps they did not have the knowledge necessary to do so.

In his book Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe (Vintage Books, New York, 1995), John Boswell - a professor of history at Yale University, USA, until his death in 1994 - sets out the results of 12 year's research to reveal that same-sex unions were not only accepted by the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches but that the Church sanctified unions between partners of the same sex with ceremonies bearing a striking resemblance to heterosexual marriage ceremonies. Boswell's book includes a discussion of the nature and history of marriage, together with a history of same-sex unions. Over 100 versions of liturgies for same-sex marriage ceremonies have been uncovered by researchers, and Boswell includes in his book copies of some of these liturgies in their original language, together with English translations.

No longer need we blindly accept the argument that same-sex marriage is impossible because it is 'unchristian', or because it hasn't existed in the past!

Hold Fast to Love
Much of the current debate focuses on what marriage is and is not, on what is moral and immoral, on what is natural and unnatural, and on the finer points of the law relating to the Marriage Act, anti-discrimination law, superannuation and the like. In all the debate love is rarely mentioned, and when it is it is often lost in a tirade concerning 'wholesome, good, old-fashioned Christianity'.

Whatever the current state of debate, whatever our involvement, may we never forget that all the debate is meaningless without love. Love is the cord which draws us together, and love is what we seek to celebrate in our same-sex marriage services.

In Christ we are free ... and the Church ought to sit down (or perhaps kneel down) and look again at the wonder of creative love.

The couples which I have joined together in the Covenant of Love ought to be congratulated and revered.

Theirs was a love I have rarely come across ... theirs was a devotion to one another which to my way of thinking is purely divine ... for LOVE, any love must always have a divine origin. (Rev Mario Schoenmaker)