WINSTON-SALEM —A North Carolina church is getting national attention after changing its policies on marriage.

Leaders at Green Street United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem will not marry heterosexual couples in its sanctuary or building until homosexual couples can be legally married.

"You are welcome here. It does not matter who you are. All means all,” said church member Katie Ayers.

And that's why church leaders decided to change its policies on marriage.

Senior pastor Kelly Carpenter says he will no longer perform any marriage ceremonies within the church walls, until the United Methodist Church removes its restrictions on gay and lesbian couples.

"And until the state changes its laws on marriage, pastors will not sign a state license for marriage at our church,” Carpenter said.

Members say they're not trying to distort theology; they simply want to make a statement.

"We're not trying to interpret the Bible at all. We're just saying that in this place—where we all love and care about one another—that we're not going to tolerate this any longer,” said Tim Sturgis, a church member and co-chair of Interfaith Voice.

[Color="red]"There is no concept of gay marriage in the Scripture. But it's more than that. There's no concept of committed monogamous, ongoing, exclusive relationships between same-sex couples. That's just not a concept during the time Scripture was written,”[/color] said Reverend Carpenter.

Carpenter says that while his church's stance on marriage has been met with some opposition, he's getting support from all over the country.

And it's not just gay marriage the church is behind. It also affirmed its commitment to premarital counseling for all couples—to promote healthy unions, regardless of sexual orientation.

Members say it all boils down to love.

"You can have a whole bunch of different theologies about it. But at the end of the day, it's all about the love of God and neighbor,” Ayers said.

Green Street's pastor says he hopes after hearing about his church's new policies, others throughout the state will follow the example.

http://triangle.news14.com/content/6...riage-policies

See, Not all of us in NC are BIGOTS.

YES!

Let them know!

This is just as wrong as churches not allowing homosexuals to marry, but watch the sheep come in and say ""

Meh, the title implies that they will marry gay couples but they actually said they are not performing any marriages.

Good for them, but I don't see why they just don't marry both gay and straight couples. Marriages within churches are not bound by the law, they can marry whoever they want.

Conflating this Church taking a stand against bigotry by drawing attention to the Church's dated ideals and practices with actual religiously sanctioned bigotry is a bit short sighted.

It's a nice idea, but won't the Church just be paid dust by people who want to get married?

That's the only problem with this.The fact that people could pay this church dust and go to more fundamentalist congregations to get a marriage license signed is

More churches in NC need to follow this rule before it has any impact on the so called 'marriage defenders' opinions. Unfortunately, gay marriage is a lost cause for some of these churches

let her ****ing know

They're very brave for doing this, I'll give them that

Okay, I applaud them for what they're trying to do because I understand it but that just creates more separation in my opinion. I get they want to send a message which is amazing in this day and age but, why not just let everyone get married no matter the sexual orientation?!

Stupid.

This won't do any good at all.

It appears they are doing relationship blessings instead of marriages tbh

I don't get why they just don't support it in a normal way this is kind of over the top This will have the opposite effect and will make people hate Gay Marriage more.