One minister for all
Posted Sep 13, 2012 06:12:37 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
For 15 years Reverend Jay Brown has been the minister responsible for civic ceremonies at Cambridge City hall, but only for opposite-sex marriages, same-sex marriages were handed off to a backup minister. Now, the City says it’s one minister for all, and have opened up the job to ministers that will provide equal service for all applicants.
Reverend Brown spoke on 570’s Jeff Alan Show and says providing same-sex marriages is not an option for her.
“I’m licensed by a church who doesn’t agree with same-sex marriages and therefore under my licence, I’m unable to provide those.”
Brown says since same-sex marriages became legal in 2005 in the City of Cambridge, the City contracted a second minister to provide that service.
“Saying that they want one person, there is one service provider and that’s City hall. It doesn’t matter if there’s one, two ministers or five ministers. We’re all licensed by the same government body and we all provide the same level of service. What’s the problem?”
The problem, according to human rights activists and Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig is that if a bus driver isn’t allowed to hand over the wheel based on something personal about a customer, why should there be one minister for one group of people and another for another group?
Despite everything, Brown says she will be applying to get her contact renewed.
“My contract is only to the end of the year so they will be getting something in place before the end of the year for sure. Will I be applying? Yes I will, because my heart is in this.”
Brown says she has people very close to her who are gay, and says she doesn’t understand why council is implementing this, considering there are ministers who currently performing same-sex marriages at City hall.
