By Jacques Krzepkowski
If Paul Robertson wasn’t gay, he wouldn’t have had a problem.
Robertson is a long-standing member of St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church on Elgin Street.
When he wanted to marry his partner Edgar, he was told his church would not marry him.
“It was a disappointment at the beginning,” he says. It was not possible for him to get married in his own church.
Even though Rev. Garth Bulmer, the minister at St. John the Evangelist, is considered one of Ottawa’s most progressive Anglican ministers, he could not perform the ceremony.
Eight years ago, Bulmer blessed a same-sex union without the diocese’s permission. He was told if he would be fired if he did it again.
Instead, Bulmer is sending same-sex couples from his church to others in Ottawa to be married, while working to change the Anglican Church’s policy from within.
“I’m quite convinced that we should be changing our policy,” he says.
“I have a choice. I leave the church or I follow the rules.”
Several same-sex couples from St. John the Evangelist have been married at the First United Church on Kent Street.
Rev. Carol Delisle says she is happy to marry same-sex couples.
“If they come from another church, we see it as an outreach,” she says. “If it seems they want a marriage … we look at them on an individual basis.”
While First United is the only United church affirming same-sex marriages in Ottawa, Delisle says other churches are going to have to deal with the issue of same-sex marriage.
“[Our decision] comes out of the revision of the law,” she says. “All churches are going to have to look at where they stand.”
So far two couples from St. John the Evangelist have been married at First United. Delisle has also married other same-sex couples, and is planning to marry one in May and another in June.
“It’s a social justice issue,” she says. “It’s about treating all people as you would want to be treated.”
For Robertson, finding a place to get married wasn’t a problem. When searching for a country home with his partner, the two stumbled across a closed Anglican Church outside of Ottawa. The two found a United Church minister from Toronto to perform the ceremony, and planned their own creative wedding in their new home.
“It was really quite special,” he says. “It was fantastic. The whole event was our own doing.”
Robertson says he wanted Bulmer to be a part of the wedding, “but that wasn’t going to happen.”