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A member of the Samoa Fa’afafine (Transvestite) Association (SFA) says they do not support gay marriage. “People always assume us to be that and this and I’m sure they (people) already thought we are celebrating together with the New Zealand gay community, when we are not,” said Tania Pulotu. So’oalo Roger Stanley, Samoa Fa’afafine Association Read more
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The Pacific Conference of Churches, which represents 38 Protestant and Catholic Churches in the Pacific region, says it’s unmoved by the passage, in New Zealand, of the same gender marriage bill General secretary Francois Pihaartae has told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat in his view, same sex marriage remains against God’s will. “Pacific churches are very much conservative. And Read more
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On Wednesday evening New Zealand became the thirteenth country in the world, and the first in the Asia/Pacific region, to support same gender marriage. Labour MP Louisa Wall’s Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill, allowing same-sex couples to marry, has passed its third reading and final vote in Parliament. In front of a packed public Read more
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An openly homosexual man who was removed from his positions of reader and religious-education instructor in his New York parish after he entered into a same-sex marriage is petitioning to be reinstated. Nicholas Coppola has presented a petition signed by 18,000 people to Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Center diocese. The diocese released a statement Read more
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The catchcry of same-sex marriage proponents is “equality”: gay couples have a right to equal treatment and to deny them legal marriage is blatant discrimination. Yet this claim deflects attention from the real issue: what is the true nature of marriage? Two rival visions jostle for supremacy. The conjugal model says marriage is a lifelong Read more
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Marriage has been under assault for at least 40 years, but according to Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, the younger generation can turn the tide — by getting married and staying married. Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco is the chairman of the US bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage. As the Supreme Court on Read more
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Numerous assurances have been given that marriage celebrants who object, on the ground of religious belief or conscience, to conducting same gender marriage ceremonies will be protected in law. But Professor Rex Ahdar, from the Law Faculty of Otago University, says a flaw still remains in the most recent version of the Bill, despite the Select Committee’s hope that the Read more
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A Parliamentary Select Committee has recommended that a bill to legalise same gender marriage be passed into law. The Government Administration Committee said the private member’s bill should progress, but with an amendment to make it clear that no minister was obliged to marry someone against their own beliefs. New Zealand’s Catholic Bishops say they Read more
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A doctrinal commission will be set up to look at a theological rationale for the liturgical blessing of people in permanent, faithful same gender relationships. This “Commission on Doctrine and Theological Questions” is being convened at the instruction of General Synod Standing Committee, which met in Auckland last week. The commission will also look at Read more
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The United States Supreme Court has a history of playing a pivotal role in emotive cultural debates including, for example, abortion (Roe v Wade), racial segregation (Brown v Board of Education) and the death penalty (Roper v Simmons). Marriage equality will now join this list. In a much anticipated move, the US Supreme Court announced Read more
