In a ground-breaking move toward equality, the U.S. Episcopal Church is scrapping the words “husband” and “wife” from their marital liturgy in order to be more inclusive of the LGBTQ community.

The new service removes the phrase “the union of husband and wife” and replaces it with “the union of two people”, and replaces the section which talks about part of God’s intention for marriage being “for the procreation of children” with the phrase “for the gift of children” to make it more relevant for same-sex couples who may wish to adopt.

That’s a wonderful step that makes the church’s vows more relevant to all believers while taking nothing away from anybody.

Couples who want to include “husband” and “wife” in their ceremonies are obviously still free to do so, but naturally, this change is opposed by conservative religious groups (including the Church of England) and people like evangelist Franklin Graham, who ranted about it on Facebook.

You know the church is doing something right when Graham has a problem with their “evil desires.”

It’s a proud day for Episcopalians — myself included — who don’t see faith as an obstacle for inclusivity.

(Image via Shutterstock)

