Canadian Unitarians have eagerly awaited legal recognition of same-sex unions since the first Unitarian wedding ceremony for a gay couple, in Winnipeg, in 1974.

"We applaud the Court's ruling, and the Justice Minister's announced intention to introduce legislation with all deliberate speed," said the Reverend Brian Kiely, President of the Canadian Unitarian Council.

"Six provinces and one territory already recognize same-sex marriages. We urge the remaining four provinces and two territories to update their legislation as soon as possible even before the previously-drafted Act Respecting Certain Aspects of Legal Capacity for Marriage is proclaimed."

The first principle of Unitarianism is to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. More than 80 percent of Canadian Unitarian congregations have won certification as "Welcoming Congregations," meaning that they have reviewed their policies to ensure they are inclusive of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons.

Most of CUC's twenty-eight Unitarian ministers and seventy-one lay chaplains across Canada have performed same-sex commitment ceremonies or weddings. No qualified Unitarian official would refuse to wed a same-sex couple or a mixed-faith couple, or a couple where one partner had been divorced, although they recognize the right of other clergy to follow their own religious teachings.

"We see same-sex marriage as a matter of religious freedom for our clergy," said Rev Kiely. "Unitarians believe that marriage is the legal and religious recognition of the love between two individuals and their commitment to care for and support one another in good times and bad."

The Canadian Unitarian Council/Conseil unitarien du Canada (CUC), is an association of forty-five congregations located across Canada with 5,200 individual members. Arising out of the work of outspoken reformers and dissenters within the Christian tradition five centuries ago, the Unitarian movement today includes Universalists and flows in a broad religious stream augmented by Humanist, earth-centred, Buddhist and other progressive beliefs.

For more information, contact:

Rev Brian Kiely, CUC president, brian@cuc.ca,  (780) 455-9797

Rev. J. MacRee Elrod, (250) 474-3361; fax (250) 474-3362

For information about the CUC, contact:

Mary Bennett, Executive Director, executivedirector@cuc.ca ,