Gay progress across the pond

Washington’s national cathedral, venue for many important national occasions and the seat of both the Episcopal Bishop of Washington and the Presiding Bishop, has announced that it will host same-sex marriage. The Diocese of Washington has already announced its acceptance of gay marriage and the readiness of candidates to accept the change was raised when a new Dean was appointed. The Ver y Rev Gary Hall called it an ‘honour’ to lead the march to greater equality. An evangelical pastor from Atlanta, Georgia, was forced to pull out of the inauguration ceremony of President Barack Obama where he had been asked to give the benediction when a video surfaced of a sermon he gave 20 years ago in which he denounced gay rights. The pastor was originally chosen because of the efforts he has made to mobilise evangelicals against trafficking. In a statement Pastor Louis Giglio said he withdrew because the prayer he offered ‘would be dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda the focal point of the inauguration’. Obama’s decision to ask the widow of assassinated civil rights activist Medgar Evers to deliver the invocation at the inaugural was the first time it was not delivered by a religious minister.