St Matthew's is a welcoming church, but the religions hierarchy has prevented it hosting New Zealand's first gay wedding The winners of radio station ZM’s Fabulous Gay Wedding will no longer have their ceremony at St-Matthew-in-the-City due to “discriminatory” Anglican policy. Reverend Glynn Cardy says the Auckland church has been unable to negotiate a way to hold the wedding ceremony. “Anglican policy allows us to only have a religious ceremony with a same gender couple after they have been married in a civil ceremony elsewhere,” he says. “At St Matthew’s we think that policy is discriminatory and we are committed to working to change it; although realistically such change may take many years.” ZM is now looking for a different church to hold New Zealand’s inaugural gay wedding on 19 August. “St Matthew’s have been incredibly supportive of our competition but it appears that the higher powers in the church have been looking at the Anglican Church policy and have concluded that they can’t marry a gay couple,” says its Content Director Christian Boston. Breakfast host Polly Gillespie is determined there will be a church wedding. “This is a momentous occasion for New Zealand. If we went with a civil service and then a blessing in St Matthew’s as the Anglican Church has suggested, we’d effectively be saying everyone’s equal but some are more equal than others. “That’s not good enough for us at ZM. We want our royal themed wedding to be a proper wedding, which means a marriage ceremony, not a blessing or anything less than that. ZM will deliver on this. “We are left with no alternative but to move the ceremony elsewhere, so we’re on the hunt for another church.” Gillespie says she feels for Cardy and St-Matthew-in-the-City, as they have been hugely supportive. “I love their courage and approach to life as we know it in 2013.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 18th July 2013 - 9:07am