Diocese of CNY: Save sex for the person you love most, says Episcopal priest

Wednesday, July 27, 2011
By Rev. G. Thomas Luck

Rev. G. Thomas Luck is dean and rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Syracuse and canon theologian of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York.

I am a priest of the Episcopal Church who is married and who has raised three children with my wife, who had been widowed when the children were young. I am an advocate for marriage, whether same- or opposite-gender marriage.

I celebrate that people may now enter into marriage with people of the same gender, and that the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York is allowing priests to bless these marriages in the name of God and the church, and as agents of the state of New York.

Contrary to what some have said, this does nothing to tear apart marriage, but actually allows a whole population of people to enter marriage, giving them the traditional rights and responsibilities of marriage, thus strengthening the role and place of marriage in society and the church. As one population within our society celebrates the right to enter the sacrament of marriage, this is a great time to celebrate marriage as the best context for sexual relations. the rest

Sex is good, and in marriage it is great. I wish to call all people to use their God-given gift of sexuality for relationships that are mutually fulfilling, joyful, committed for life, faithful and sanctifying, recognizing that there are stages on the way to discerning marriage, and accept that for most people sex is part of that discerning.