History at Pasadena's All Saints: Church holds its first same-sex marriages

Photo: Newlyweds with the Rev. Susan Russell.

Photo Gallery: Female Couple Weds at All Saints Church

PASADENA - Two quiet, middle-aged women made history Thursday when they became the first women to walk down the aisle and exchange vows in a traditional wedding ceremony at All Saints Church.

Susan Craig and Bear Ride said they didn't care about being first. All the two retired Presbyterian ministers wanted was to be married in the sight of God.

"We are excited - I have butterflies," said Ride, 54, before the hourlong afternoon service, attended by about 50 friends and family.

"It has occurred to me that I might weep - and I don't have a Kleenex," Craig, 67, joked. "I'm so happy."

All Saints Rector, the Rev. Ed Bacon, called the wedding of the two longtime church members "historic" for All Saints.

"We have believed with all our hearts that to refuse the blessing of the church to such relationships would be an abusive act of injustice," Bacon told the congregation.

Any relationship based on love and fidelity, he said, "always improves the social order and fabric - strengthens the state of marriage - rather than the opposite."

On a more personal note, Bacon called the couple "amazing people ... advocates of justice for everyone" whose warmth and affection embraced everyone.

Last month the full church vestry, the lay governing body, voted unanimously to allow same-sex weddings to be performed there days after the California Supreme Court struck down a ban on gay marriage.

Since then, 25 same-sex weddings have been scheduled by members for the coming months, church officials said.

Ride and Craig are the first women and the first All Saints parishioners to wed before the altar there.

On Wednesday evening in a small ceremony in the church chancel, however, the Rev. Mel White exchanged vows with his longtime partner Gary Nixon. White gained national attention for his book, "Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America," and was formerly a speechwriter for prominent evangelists Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.

Ride and Craig, who have been together for 12 years, came home to Pasadena on Sunday and picked up their marriage license on Tuesday morning, the first day they were available.

The couple drove from New Mexico, where they are volunteering at Santa Fe Presbyterian Conference Center for a year. They didn't schedule the wedding to be first, they said, but the was timing right to get family and friends together on short notice.

Craig and Ride said they are aware a November ballot initiative could reimpose the gay marriage ban. But, they said, even if it passes, they are now legally married.

"This may not be helpful to say," Craig said. "But I hope as these marriages happen in California, Californians may come to think, `This is wonderful. It's a wonderful state we live in,' And that could tip over into being proud that the people of California are all equal."

MORE