California gay marriage case

Just a few moments ago, the California Supreme Court handed down its decision in the consolidated cases of City and County of San Francisco v. State, Tyler v. State, Woo v. Lockyer, Clinton v. State, Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund v. City and County of San Francisco, and Campaign for California Families v. Newsom. I've just finishing reading skimming it.

In a carefully crafted and very, very long (172 pages, including two concurrences) 4-3 majority opinion, the court specifically said its ruling was on the narrow issue of what to call domestic partnerships in California, and they went to pains to extricate themselves from the issue of whether or not there should be gay marriages, acknowledging that there is still a societal difference of opinion on that matter. So, for the Religious Right doomsayers, this isn't a blatent case of judicial activism (after all, six of the seven justices are Republican appointees), as domestic partnerships already exist in California—the court did not "legalize" gay marriage.

The court was very careful to point out that this applies only to civil marriages and domestic partnerships; nothing in the ruling is to be construed as requiring any church or religious organization to recognize or perform same sex marriages.

California is in the position of being one of only a tiny number of states wherein there are legislative statutes on the books allowing heterosexuals to marry and homosexuals to enter into domestic partnerships (some states use the term "civil unions"). They also don't have a Religious Right constitutional amendment yet (definition of marriage as heterosexual only), but merely a state referendum-imposed Religious Right statute. The court observed that the existing California domestic partnership laws embued gay couples with most of the rights of straight married couples, so they sought to answer the question as to whether or not the state had a compelling interest in maintaining "separate but equal" parallel systems. In dicta, the court found a fundamental right of gay couples to marriage, that the "separate but equal" system wasn't equal, and that the State has no compelling interest in prohibiting homosexuals from marrying. The crux of this ruling is that the referendum imposing the Religious Right definition limiting marriage to one male and one female is unconstitutional under California's state constitution and its equal protection clause.

For years, I've made the argument that marriage is a religious institition that gave an imprimatur to the archaic concept of ownership of females by fathers and husbands, and that governments have no business sanctioning marriage or other religious ceremonies. I submit that if a government wants to recognize a gender-neutral "domestic partnership," that would be fine, but they should not be doing "marriages." The court addressed this issue, too, and decided that, rather than stripping heterosexual couples of the title of marriage, it was better just to use the familiar term and extend marriage to homosexuals.

Now, all those people who were married by the handsome San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom in 2004 will still have to get re-married, since the California Supreme Court invalidated and voided those marriage licenses in an earlier case (Lockyer v. City and County of San Francisco). The question in my mind, though, is what happens to lawful domestic partners in California today. Are they now deemed married? Or do they have to go get a new marriage license or certiticate? Perhaps one of you California lawyers can weigh in on this topic.

We should also note that the Religious Right has already submitted a petition trying to get a constitutional amendment on the November general election ballot. Governor Schwartzenegger has publicly said he will oppose such an amendment, but if it gets on the ballot, there will be a high risk that it could pass.

And I still get confused when my gay friends get married.....what do I call them? Are they both husbands? And, with lesbians, which one is the husband and which one is the wife, or are they both husbands? ;-)

Visiting a new church

For the past several weeks, I've been meaning to visit the Shrine of the Sacred Heart, the Catholic church that's on the border between the Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods. It's a century-old parish that now occupies a 1930s-vintage Romanesque basilica. The parish and its services reflect the growing Washington immigrant community in that neighborhood, and on Sundays, only one Mass is said in English, with four in Spanish, plus others in Vietnamese and Haitian Creole. And, while it's a well-attended church, the immigrant nature of the parish shows in the apparent long-term financial shortfalls of the parish budget and their need for some major capital improvements. The parish is staffed by Capuchin monks (the monastic order after which the coffee drink cappuccino is named in honor of the light brown color of the monks' robes).

Sunday was the Feast of Pentecost, so I showed up at the one and only English Mass wearing my red sweater in honor of the liturgical color of the day. It's a little farther from the Metro stop to the church than I expected, so I was a little worried about being late to Mass. Then, when I got to the church grounds, I was further slowed by a Hispanic street market set up along the sidewalks and the crowds browsing there. But, I needed have worried, since the Mass started about ten minutes late.

Inside, it's a pretty church. The cruciform floorplan used in many churches is something that dates from the late medieval Gothic era; in contrast, this church is laid out as a traditional T-shaped basillica, the design used in the early church and through the Romanesque period. As is traditional with this type of architecture, the windows and arches are all rounded at the top instead of pointed, and there is a large dome over the crossing. There is a beautiful high altar surmounted by its own dome, but they don't use it as an altar anymore. Instead, they have a rather too-small table set up near the altar rail that serves as an altar and it is positioned to allow the priest celebrant to stand behind it and face the people (I would remind the monks that Vatican II allowed the possibility of standing behind the altar, but did not mandate it!).



The interior surfaces reflect the practicality and experimentation of the 1930s, with what appears to be brushed concrete instead of big marble stones making up the walls. The interior decoration is traditional, yet I had a strong feeling of the influence of the Art Deco movement of the period. I didn't get close enough to inspect, but it looked like "mosaic" art was actually painted on instead of being made from small colored tiles.

A large pipe organ is located in the balcony at the back of the nave, but, alas, it wasn't used. They had a praise band with a piano, guitar, and violin up front in the side of the sanctuary with a small volunteer choir to provide musical support.

As usual in Catholic churches, side altars flank the high altar. Here, the Joseph altar is on the left and below the Marian altar is on the right. The shrine to the BVM was quite well illuminated with dozens and dozens of votive candles!

Once we finally got started with Mass, we got fed a diet of bad contemporary Catholic music by Haugen, Haas, and Hurd. The Mass setting was Mass of Light by David Haas (though they took the Gloria at what I thought was a Muzak pace—and I can say that after all the hours I once spent learning to play the very involved accompaniment at the proper faster speed). Hymns included two Marty Haugen ditties, "Send Down the Fire" and "Spirit Blowing through Creation" for the processional and the offertory, then Bob Hurd's mixed Spanish-English song "Envia tu Espiritu" for the recessional. While I saw some Hispanic parishioners singing along to "Envia tu Espiritu," for the most part, the primarily Anglo congregation stood in stony silence during the hymns and the Mass setting. I don't know if they are merely a non-singing congregation or if they just don't like contemporary Catholic music. The choir and praise band sang everything pretty much as a solo performance. My only complaint with them was that they were miked, and the several microphones in their midst were placed in such a way that two or three voices were directly picked up and stuck out over the choral blend.

I'm not sure if it was scheduled or not, but the priest took it upon himself to sing a capella the traditional chant Veni Creator Spiritus in Latin as a solo sequence hymn. He also had to sing the Haas arrangement of the eucharistic prayer, a nasty, mournful composition, and, judging from his lack of familiarity with the "tune," I'm going to guess that it was a special thing just for Pentecost.

The priest gave an interesting (and pleasantly brief) homily talking about how our goal in life should be to act and behave in a way leading to our eventual canonization as a saint.

Liturgically, they did something I didn't like: inclusive language. They did the switch of "It is right to give Him thanks and praise" to "It is right to give God thanks and praise" and one or two other similar incidents.

One thing I noticed about the service was how very undisciplined the congregation was. Lots of families with small children chose to sit in the transepts and they let their children run around wild during Mass, so their noise echoed throughout the church. Lots of babies cried and screamed unabated (no crying room!). Several people tried to pass the peace with more than just their immediate neighbors. Lots of people got up and down during the service (bathroom breaks? cigarette breaks?). Often, I heard the murmur of conversations, especially during the homily and communion. People didn't go to communion in row by row order, but just went up at random. One man walked up to communion early and stood on a kneeler by the altar rail to "sing" with the choir. Several acolytes seemed untrained and had to be prompted to carry out their duties. Parishioners came up at the end of Mass to give 10-15 minutes' worth of announcements (the length was bad enough, but the majority of the announcers didn't speak into the microphone and I couldn't hear them). So, it was a very interesting morning.

On the way home after Mass, I stopped off and had a cappuccino.

Lighting the Cathedral

This past weekend as a part of its celebration of the centennial of the groundbreaking, the Washington National Cathedral brought in internationally-noted Swiss lighting designers for "Lighting to Unite," an unusual event where the cathedral building was used as a canvas for interesting outdoor lighting effects. We went to go look, and it was certainly an interesting thing.

I'm not really sure what "Lighting to Unite" had to do with anything. There wasn't any theme or propaganda presentation associated with the lighting. The lights also weren't really what I was expecting. The press releases talked about he artists "lighting" the cathedral, so I was thinking they would position various lights around the place and turn them on at various times, but in reality what they did was use the building as a projection screen for colored slides. It was still pretty.

Here are a few more views. If you'd like to see a lot more of the pictures, go to my Flickr album to view them. Sorry about the blurry pictures, but I don't have a high end camera or a tripod, and it's difficult doing photos at night without the proper equipment. You can get the idea, though.

Memories of Easter during Ascensiontide

By accident this morning, I happened upon a YouTube video someone recorded at St. Paul's Episcopal Church (K Street) this past Easter. I'm not sure if the recording is from the Easter Vigil or one of the Easter morning Masses, but it's kind of a fun thing. They took a recording of the congregation and choir during the service and paired it with some pretty videography showing the church and it's Easter decorations (I wish they'd had actual footage during the service!). Anyway, these are the traditional Easter acclamations, Christus Vincit, sung every year at K Street, and it's the song where I always blow out my voice, since it demands high Gs! LOL

Vibrato

Yesterday, Robert invited me up to Takoma to go to church at the little Episcopal parish, Trinity, that's across the road and down a bit from his house. I've seen it many times, and it's a very English-looking, 1930s vintage, stone building in the neogothic style with a Normanesque square tower.

We showed up in time to get a good seat for their 10:30 service. It's a small church, but the pews were filled with a vibrant and interested congregation. It seems as though the active membership of the parish is about 90% African-American, African, and Carribbean.

They started ten minutes late, processing in to In Babilone (Hail, thou once despised Jesus). It was a big procession, including a choir that filled the choir stalls in the chancel, and the rector wore a biretta and chasuble in procession. The parish transferred Ascension Day (last Thursday) to Sunday, so I'm not sure how much of the service was "normal" and how much was for the festal occasion. After the collect for purity, the choir sang "I Sing the Mighty Power of God" as an introit.

Other hymns included Lancanshire for the recessional, Old Hundredth as the offertory doxology, and then, using the Lift Every Voice and Sing II hymnal, "God Will Take Care of You" for the gradual, "I Love the Lord" in between the blessing and dismissal, and for the Mass setting. The Gloria (#243) is very pop music familiar sounding; the Lord's prayer (#264) is an arrangement of the Malotte song, and the Santus/Benedictus and the Agnus Dei were the Schubert German Mass settings. They sang Gerald Near's fraction anthem "Christ Our Passover" in the Agnus Dei spot (before singing the Schubert "Jesus Lamb of God"), having already said the fraction anthem words.

A soprano soloist sang the spiritual tune "I Don' Feel No-Ways Tired" as an offertory solo. Two men sang a duet during communion, but it was not listed in the program. The choir was an interesting group of volunteers. It helped me illustrate to Robert, though, why I don't sing in a non-professional parish choir; they had two women with big, trained voices whose voices clearly stuck out over the choral blend of the rest of the choir (and their big vibratos and the occasional jump-up-the-octave big ending notes didn't help). I just can't sing with untrained voices because I don't want my voice sticking out, and as one approaches the higher notes in one's range, one simply must sing with proper technique (and, hence, volume), or not at all. I understand their dilemma.

A seminarian delivered a very good sermon on the "certain women" mentioned in Acts who were in the upper rooms with the apostles after the resurrection of Jesus. She has a lot of potential. I understand she'll be leaving in the fall to work on a doctorate at Duke.

The congregation seemed very involved in the service. They applauded after the sermon and after all the choir anthems and solos. The acolytes were all trained and very focused on doing things the old, traditional ways. During the prayer of consecration, not only was the tower bell rung at the elevations, an adult acolyte in the sanctuary thrice rang the sanctus bells for each elevation. The priest also fully incensed the altar, but they didn't seem to have any smoke coming from the thurible! They had parishioners reading explanations of the readings before the reader, and one woman was so verklempt from her explanation she dropped her papers and had to run back to her seat. Another woman introduced the preacher. And, then, there was the passing of the peace. OMG! It seemed to take hours as everyone wandered around visiting and chatting and greeting everyone in the church....and one man even sat down at the piano to play a little music whilst people were peace-passing. Then, they did lots of announcements, including having someone out in the nave with a microphone so visitors could introduce themselves; I resolutely avoided looking at the microphone bearer as she kept trying to get my attention to offer me the mike.

The service was long. We didn't get out until nearly 12:30! So, considering their late start, their service was about 1.75 hours.

Trinity is a very warm and friendly parish. I wish them well.