Canadian Unitarian Council, 018-1179A King St W, Toronto ON, 416-489-4121 www.cuc.ca 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RAINBOW CONNECTION TO EQUAL MARRIAGE: Canadian Unitarian Council

Bringing the longest rainbow banner in Canada to Parliament is the latest event in Canadian Unitarians’ long-term campaign to have Parliament recognize their religion’s right to join same-sex couples in marriage. The five Calgary youth who created the banner did so, they said,  because, “Equality is very important to us.”

“In the past, we have been unable to marry Gay and Lesbian couples,” said Rev. Brian Kopke, minister of Ottawa First Unitarian Church.  “This has been an infringement on acting out our belief in the acceptance of all people.”

On June 6, Rev. Kopke and Elizabeth Bowen, past president of the Canadian Unitarian Council, made a presentation to the Bill C-38 Legislative Committee.

“The Canadian Unitarian Council strongly supports the passage of Bill C-38,” said Ms Bowen. “For us, the right of two people to marry, regardless of their sexual orientation, is a human right as guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

Rev. Kopke pointed out that, “Canada has had a developing marriage definition over the years.” He continued by saying that,  “At one time, in this country, it was illegal for a Chinese man to marry a white woman - not a law any longer. Just as that narrow and prejudice-filled law went by the board, it is time for Bill C-38 to be passed.”                

Every Unitarian minister and lay chaplain in Canada would be pleased to assist same-sex couples in developing their own unique and special wedding service. Many have already done so in jurisdictions where it is legal.

“I have performed well over two hundred Holy Unions in my 35 years as a Unitarian Minister,” said Rev. Kopke. “In June of 2003, I performed my first legal Lesbian wedding. In July, it was followed by my first Gay wedding. I can not express to you the flood of emotions I felt as these couples were able to feel for the first time that they were truly accepted by Canadian Society.”

Ms. Bowen said that, “Many opposed to equal-marriage have implied that all religions are on their side. On the contrary, faiths across the country are dismayed when the "religious" view is appropriated by strident voices that stand in opposition to this human right.” 

The 500-foot rainbow banner has already adorned both gay and straight weddings. As well, sections of it will be displayed at Gay Pride events from Hamilton to Victoria. The goal of the five Unitarian youth who have sewn the banner is to raise awareness as they raise funds to keep the banner growing. 

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:

Elizabeth Bowen, CUC past president, elizabeth@cuc.ca , 613-236-4504
Rev. J. MacRee Elrod, (250) 474-3361; fax (250) 474-3362 (Chair, CUC’s Equal Marriage Working Group)
Rev Brian Kopke, First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa
30 Cleary Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario K2A 4A1
613-725-1066

For more information about the banner, please see the Pride Rainbow Project website at:
 http://www.priderainbowproject.com/

For information about the Canadian Unitarian Council, contact:
Mary Bennett, Executive Director, 1-888-568-5723 or in Toronto: 416-489-4121 executivedirector@cuc.ca