Uniting Church minister The Reverend Roger Munson is among the Canberra celebrants marrying same-sex couples this weekend.
He is the only registered religious celebrant who can legally perform same-sex marriages in the Australian Capital Territory.
“I wanted to offer an alternative to people,” he said. “From any faith, tradition – not just Christianity.”
Apart from the paperwork referencing the ACT Marriage Equality Same-Sex Act of 2013, Mr Munson says same-sex weddings are not much different to heterosexual marriages.
He says he is delighted and feels privileged to be marrying a gay couple.
“Very excited, I think it is a wonderful thing,” he said.
Minister a long-term advocate for marriage equality
Mr Munson was born in Ballarat and was a public servant in Melbourne before spending 17 years as an Anglican Priest in Victoria and New South Wales.
He later studied a Masters of Social Work before becoming a Uniting Church Minister for five years.
Mr Munson is currently a locum Uniting Church Minister and social worker in Canberra.
“Being gay or lesbian, bi, whatever, is just who we are,” he said. “It is not something people choose to do, it is just who we are.
“People who think otherwise are doing so out of ignorance.
“When you see the struggles of people coming out and with their actual gender identity, you can’t imagine why some people would deliberately choose that.”
Mr Munson says his advocacy for marriage equality has drawn criticism from the church and angry letters from Queenslanders.
“You have got to take positive action or things never change,” he said.
“The church is often too quiet in allowing people to express views that are rather horrendous in terms of people who are homosexual.
“They vilify and try to destroy these people through bullying and a lack of acceptance and that is not good enough.”
Munson says Christians in support of same-sex marriage
He says his objective as an advocate is to provide an alternative view that Christians do support same-sex marriage.
“Jesus always welcomed people, had compassion and never judged people.
“So when I studied and realised this was a human rights issue it became very strong for me.”
Mr Munson says in his past he worked actively against church figures who engaged in reparation sessions to try to convert people back to heterosexuality.
“So I want to say to those Christians who struggle with this, that people are who they are,” he said.
“We welcome them. We don’t judge them through prejudices put upon us through people.
“These people should be allowed to marry because they want to express their love for each other through a public right as anyone else does.”
First same-sex marriages begin
First same sex wedding in ACT
Dennis Liddelow and Stephen Dawson during their marriage ceremony outside Parliament House in Canberra.
The first same-sex weddings in Australia have taken place in the ACT today, as couples rush to get married ahead of a High Court decision.
Forty-six couples registered in order to be able to wed this weekend ahead of a decision on Thursday on whether the ACT’s same-sex marriage law is valid.
ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell says the weekend activities will be “part of our history as a city”.
“They will be a small part of history in Australia and they will send a signal about what a contemporary twenty-first Australia should look like,” Mr Corbell said.
Canberra’s Black Mountain Tower will be lit up in rainbow colours this weekend.
Photo: AAP Alan Porritt
Author: Adrienne Francis
Publication: ABC News
Date: 7 December 2013
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