When a Monthly Meeting reaches unity during Meeting For Business, we draft a minute to express the “sense of the meeting”. Here are some of minutes of Chattanooga Friends Meeting.
George Fox 1669
For the right joining in marriage is the work of the Lord only, and not the priests or magistrates: for it is God’s ordinance and not man’s: and therefore Friends cannot consent that they should join them together: for we marry none: it is the Lord’s work and we are but witnesses.
As a religious community, Chattanooga Friends Meeting believes that marriage is a deeply spiritual commitment by two people in the presence of God and the witnesses gathered: the meeting thusly takes the new family under it’s care. In keeping with this belief, hallowed in our tradition, that there is that of God in everyone and our commitment to equality, we affirm that the intrinsic value and the spiritual basis of marriage are the same regardless of the gender of the partners. We treat all equally. Our commitment to oversee marriages follows the same careful process in arriving at clearness with all who wish to unite under our care.
Approved at Meeting For Worship With Attention To Business on 6 May 2010