The following is a letter written by Rev. Pam Shepherd, pastor at Ashland UCC Church in Ashland Oregon, to her congregation explaining the decision not to sign marriage licenses.

Dear Friends,
On January 10th at 10:30 am our church will be opening our doors to invite gay and lesbian couples from our community to get married. Rev. Charles Harlow, Rev. James C. Martin, Rev. Dorothy Brooks and I will be officiating for the weddings.

What my fellow UCC clergy and I will no longer be doing is collaborating with the state of Oregon in a policy of discrimination that grants over 1,140 specific civil rights and benefits to heterosexual couples, while denying those civil rights and benefits to gay and lesbian couples.

The national conversation about the right of same gender loving couples to be married has blurred both the mission of the church and the commitment of the drafters of our constitution to the separation of church and state. We believe gay and lesbian couples have the constitutional right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If marriage isn’t about pursuing happiness, I don’t know what is.

But for the church, marriage is a sacrament, and the state of Oregon has no business telling churches who can and cannot receive its sacraments. Let the church perform the sacrament of marriage. Let the state register couples in civil unions. For too long, churches have participated in the denial of civil rights to same gender loving citizens by its willingness to sign marriage licenses for straight couples and only perform holy unions for gay and lesbian couples. The ordained ministers of our church believe the separation and church and state is good for the church and for the state.

Yours on the Journey,
Pam (Shepherd)