The New York Times

Tuesday, July 22, 1997

Harvard Allows Gay Couples to Hold Ceremonies at Its Chapel

By WILLIAM H. HONAN

Gay and lesbian couples are now permitted - to hold commitment or blessing ceremonies in Harvard University's Memorial Church, university official announced last week.

The decision make Harvard the second major educational institution education after Stanford University in Califoria, to give formal permission for gay and lesbian unions in its chapel.

Terry Sherpad, a spokesman for Stanford, said that over the past two years, about five such ceremonies have been held at Stanford's Memorial Church, a nondenominational Christian chapel.

After studying the issue for a year, Harvard's Board of Ministry, and advisory group that reviews religious policies at Harvard, recommended allowing students, alumni and employees to conduct the ceremonies in the church, a nondenominational Protestant chapel that has long been used by a variety of religious groups. The final approval was granted by the Rev. Peter Gomes, pastor of memorial Church. Mr. Gomes's decision is not an official university policy but was made in accordance with Harvard's nondiscrimination policy, said Ann O'Connor, a spokeswoman for the church.

The issue has been discussed at Harvard for several years.

In 1991, Mr. Gomes publicly acknowledged that he was gay, but three years ago he rejected a student's request to hold a commitment ceremony in the church because there was no policy on the matter, Ms. O'Connor said.

Last fall, several gay and lesbian groups on campus began lobbying Mr. Gomes to make the church available for these ceremonies.

Mr. Gomes was unavailable to answer questions yesterday, but e issued a statement saying, "I am pleased to be able to extend the hospitality of the university church to all members of the university. Our staff will do all that we can to assist in the development of these ceremonies."

At least two other major universities have rejected policies that would permit campus chapels to be used for commitment ceremonies.

When two gay alumni at Duke University in Durham, N.C., were denied to use of the chapel there for a gay commitment ceremony in 1995, gay and lesbian students demonstrated in protest.

The Duke trustees, however, reaffirmed their ban on same-sex unions in the university chapel.

At Emory University in Atlanta, trustees voted last month to ban all gay and lesbian ceremonies at its two nondenominational chapels, and instructed the two university chaplains to come up with a new, explicit policy for consideration at the trustees' November meeting.

Gay and lesbian ceremonies have no legal standing and are opposed by many conservative Christian organizations. William Merrell, a spokesman for the Southern Baptist Convention, which encompasses 41,000 churches with 15.7 million members, said that in recent years two or three Southern Baptist churches that permitted same-sex ceremonies "have been removed from their fellowship" with the central organization.

Tom McAnallyn, a spokesman for the United Methodist Church, which has 8.5 million members, said that a year ago the church's policy-making General Conference adopted a statement saying that "ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches."