The resolution was labeled A049. At the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in Indianapolis, deputies and bishops voted to authorize a provisional rite called "The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant." The language was deliberately ecclesiastical. The effect was revolutionary. On July 10, 2012, the church formally allowed its clergy to bless the marriages of same-sex couples in states where such unions were legal.
This was not a sudden shift. The church had been ordaining openly gay and lesbian clergy for years, and its first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, was consecrated in 2003, causing global upheaval in the Anglican Communion. The 2012 vote was the logical, liturgical culmination of that trajectory. It provided a standardized ceremony, a theological framework that framed the union within the context of lifelong commitment and faith. The vote passed in the House of Deputies by 78% and in the House of Bishops by 111-41.
The action was widely misinterpreted as the church "creating" gay marriage. In reality, it was responding to a civil reality. Same-sex marriage was legal in several states. The church’s move was a pastoral and theological acknowledgment of existing relationships within its pews. It also represented a careful compromise; bishops in dioceses where same-sex marriage remained illegal could forbid the rite’s use.
The immediate consequence was further strain within the global Anglican Communion, which encompasses conservative churches in Africa and Asia. The Episcopal Church, along with the Anglican Church of Canada, became a progressive vanguard. Domestically, it provided a religious sanction for gay couples at a time when federal recognition was still three years away via the Supreme Court. The liturgy itself was a document, a set of prayers and rubrics. Its approval signaled that a major American Christian denomination had decided, through its democratic structures, that the love between two people of the same sex was worthy of a blessing before God.