Wedding Story - Shannon Holman
Just after Rev. Kansfield joined Jennifer and Ann in union, which I believe he did not in a spirit of defiance but in humble obedience to the great commandment and the great commission, I took him aside to thank him.

I wanted him to know that his service was not just to Ann and Jennifer, but to a wider group, so I told him how meaningful it was to me to be affirmed through that ceremony as a member of God's family. Rev. Kansfield wept at that moment, in sorrow, it seemed to me, at the recognition that so many of us in and outside the church have been made to feel like outcasts rather than treasured adoptees. I believe that, just as the Bible was wrongly interpreted in times past in order to justify the sin of slavery, it is being wrongly interpreted today in order to deny gays and lesbians participation in the rites, the rights, and, most importantly, the responsibilities of covenant relationship.

As a Christian, I take seriously the promise I made to God through Rev. Kansfield to support the union of Jennifer and Ann. And as a Christian, I celebrate the promise God made to me, through Jesus, that "neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

In Him,
Shannon Holman


ecclesia reformata, sed semper reformanda