RALEIGH -- The congregation at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church will vote this month on whether to stop holding state-sanctioned marriages inside their walls, a policy that would continue until same-sex couples can be legally wed.
If passed by a majority, couples getting married at Pullen could enjoy a spiritual ceremony inside the Raleigh church, whether gay or straight. But no marriage license could be signed by a Pullen pastor, and no such legal document could be issued there while North Carolina forbids same-sex marriage. The vote will be on Nov. 20.
"For us, it's very much a civil rights issue," said Brooks Wicker, co-chair of Pullen's deacon council. "It's in keeping with our tradition of trying to live into the gospel, treating everyone justly and fairly."
With a long history of political and social activism, including opposition to segregation and the Vietnam War, Pullen has blessed gay marriages for the past 20 years. Its uncommon stance on the issue got the church kicked out of the Southern Baptist Convention.
In July, Pastor Nancy Petty told her flock at Pullen that she didn't want to legally marry anyone until she could legally wed everyone.
A lesbian herself and Pullen's first female pastor, she described acting as an agent of the state, and signing marriage licenses, as a burden on her conscience.
She asked to be relieved of the duty and asked for a conversation within the church. Two listening sessions followed her request, Wicker said, and the participants overwhelmingly supported Petty's request.
"We certainly weren't going to ask her to do something that's against her conscience," Wicker said. "The church wanted to go one step further. We wanted to make a statement."
The deacon council drafted a marriage equality statement, which Petty described as powerful.
"This congregation, not this pastor, has chosen to make this statement about marriage equality based on their faith," she said.
Petty joins a small group of pastors nationwide, including two in Asheville, who decline to sign marriage licenses while same-sex unions are illegal. One church in Arlington, Va. - Clarendon Presbyterian - has also declined to perform legal marriages that include a marriage certificate.
Issues surrounding homosexuality have long caused tension among congregations in North Carolina and nationwide. In May, the Presbyterian Church USA changed its constitution to allow gay and lesbian ministers to serve, and just last month, the Presbyterian church ordained its first openly gay minister.
It will probably take some time for same-sex marriage acceptance to work its way into mainline congregations, said Laurie Maffly-Kipp, a religion professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. But it doesn't surprise her to hear more congregations on the fringes starting to bow out of legal ceremonies.
Pullen's move is also fueled by next year's vote on whether to add a prohibition on same-sex marriage to the state constitution, which the deacon council describes as discrimination.
If Pullen stops doing legal marriages, religious services would still be held for straight and gay couples.
"We want to stand as witnesses to their covenant to each other," Wicker said.
Couples wanting a marriage license could either get it through the magistrate's office or via another pastor, but not on Pullen grounds.
"Do it at the reception," Wicker suggested.
