A Wedding In New Haven

Paul Woodrum's account of the marriage of his friends that took place in New Haven. Shared with permission.

Peace,
Jeff

Tuesday: This morning Victor and I accompanied fellow Brooklynites and friends Fr. Howard Blunt (D of NY) and Donald Beckman to New Haven, CT, to formalize with civil marriage their union of over twenty years. The drive was about two hours under a gray sky.

We arrived at the Department of Public Health, Vital Records Section, at 11:10 a.m. and they completed the paper work, ceremony, and issuance of two certified copes of the marriage certificate by noon. It helped that before arrival Don and Howard had filled in information forms downloaded from the internet.

After the application process, a justice of the peace was called and we went to a large, second floor stair hall in the beautifully restored Victorian portion of New Haven's City Hall. Our justice of the peace, a lovely West Indian woman, offered use of a white, metal arbor covered with artificial greens and flowers as a prop to frame the ceremony and kindly granted me permission to bless the rings and the marriage at which she officiated and witnessed.

For the blessing of the rings, titanium and enamel bands, I used the BCP form on p. 427 changing only the words "this man and this woman," to "these two men." No changes were required in the gender-neutral blessing of a marriage, BCP, p. 431.

(How simple it can be! In the interest of full disclosure and as evidence for my deposition that will no doubt follow this wild disregard for church order, I am resident in the Diocese of Newark, live and am licensed in the Diocese of Long Island, and did not ask permission of the Bishop of Connecticut to say a couple prayers in that diocese.)

We all noticed the JP cross herself as I blessed Howard and Donald in the name of the Trinity. As we chatted, she mentioned being an acolyte and involved in the Girls Friendly Society. When I asked what church, she replied, "St. Luke's Episcopal." Kisses all around. Then the JP who had officiated for Victor and I came through and more greetings.

As we were leaving City Hall under a now bright sky, a woman carrying rolls of architectural drawings asked if we were heading across the green to be married at the UCC church that stands in the center flanked by Trinity Episcopal to the its right and another UCC church to its left, saying many gay marriages were performed there. (Trinity Church, take note.) I guess our suits and ties gave us away. We confessed to being Episcopalians who had just done the deed. Profuse congratulations and good wishes.

New Haven is centered on an 18th century town green. City Hall on Church St. is to the south, Yale University to the north and the three aforementioned churches in the center of the green. We cut diagonally across the green and proceeded up Chapel Street to Scoozi's, next to the Yale Repertory Theater, the restaurant where Victor and I had our wedding breakfast back in June.

Scoozi's is a chic, modern restaurant/wine bar with white tablecloths, heavy hotel plate silver, fresh flowers on every table and discretely attentive, very friendly, eye-candy wait-staff. The Italian menu embraces local produce. This being October, pumpkin and squash from the Brown farm were highlighted. It being Tuesday, all bottles of wine were half price. It being a wedding celebration, desert -- moist pumpkin cake topped with pumpkin puree and a side scoop of whipped cream -- was on the house.

Afterwards we sauntered through a collegiate-Gothic corner of Yale and back across the green to the modern parking garage next to the brick and stone striated, high Victorian Gothic City Hall. Victor and I caught the Metro-North commuter train back to Grand Central Terminal and Donald and Howard began their week-long honeymoon touring central Connecticut.

I highly recommend New Haven as a place for gay couples getting married. The folks are friendly, the process simple, the setting beautiful and the price (not counting Scoozi's) under $100.00 including the JP's fee and the documents.