Over the past few months, I have officiated at several same-gender weddings. Once this option became a legal reality in Pennsylvania, lots of couples inquired about being married in our church. I can honestly say that marriage equality has not only been a blessing for these couples, it has been good for the church.

Preparing for a same-gender marriage resembles most other wedding-planning rituals. Any couple (heterosexual or homosexual) who asks about being married in our church receives a fairly standard response: Weddings are done for couples who have a relationship with the church andideally are members of the congregation.

Couples will meet with one of the ministers for pre-marital counseling, both to talk about critical marriage issues (such as conflict resolution, finances, family dynamics and religious foundations) and to establish a relationship with a clergyperson for future follow-up conversations. Details are then worked out for the actual service: date, time, florists, photographers, scriptures, music and vows.

No one is “given away” at the altar, although families are asked to give their blessing to the couple. And the service closes with a phrase that works for every scenario, namely, “You may now kiss your spouse.”

So, what has changed?

For same-gender couples being married, I see a re-energized commitment in their own (often very longstanding) relationship. I sense a sigh of relief that legal rights long denied them can finally be claimed and trusted, as well as an effusive joy around sharing their love and commitment at long last with their church family, relatives and friends.

There is also a palpable change that occurs in everyone who attends a same-gender wedding. I can almost see the mental gears recalibrate as people look at loved ones standing there in the church chancel, saying their vows before a robed officiant, exchanging vows, heads bowed in prayer and embracing for a kiss after being married in the eyes of God.

Assuredly for some guests this is a very new experience and a significant departure from their prior experiences of church weddings. But I have yet to find someone who witnessed a same-gender wedding and yet concluded that it is contrary to the central moral values that undergird our common faith and civil sense of the common good.

I know that there is disagreement on this topic, just as people of faith disagree on important issues such as whether women should be allowed to fully serve in all leadership roles of the church or what exactly is signified when Christian communities share the sacrament of communion bread and wine. But on the issue of marriage equality, it is important not to let cultural bias and social pressure perpetuate an injustice against same-gender couples.

The pattern of a “man leaving his father and mother and being joined to his wife” is a valued, honorable and important definition of marriage. But it is a paradigmatic model, not an exclusionary definition.

Marriage is a covenant between two people of mutual love, fidelity, commitment and trust. It is the highest ideal to which two people can aspire, whether or not it leads to children, whether or not it lasts for a lifetime and whether or not it involves a man and a woman or two women or two men. It is an act of faith that can only be sustained by human work and heavenly grace, and as such it should be celebrated as part of the ongoing life and witness of the church.

The congregation I serve is a growing, progressive, mainline Protestant church. A significant percentage of our new members are in two groups: young adults and lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered adults (as well as combinations of both categories).

For the former group, it is important to participate in a church community that speaks both about biblical principles and social justice precepts, such as having the church be a place of inclusion for all people regardless of sexual identity and orientation. For the latter group, it is liberating to be allowed to say with full integrity “I am a child of God” to a world that has too readily believed their homosexual identity contradicts their profession of faith.

Many of these people come to us having not visited a church sanctuary for years. Many of them discover the gospel’s good news and a living faith that prompts them to finally accept receiving the sacrament of baptism. All of them bring their energy, their gifts, their laughter, passion, creative spirits and heartfelt testimony. In their doing so, our church is made significantly better.

Recent court decisions have left our country with a patchwork of legal precedents concerning marriage equality. At some point the Supreme Court will have to bring clarity to the topic, and my prayer is that its action will make it possible for clergy to have the right, if they so choose, to officiate at same-gender weddings for those couples who wish to make public their covenant of committed love.

At a time when divorce remains so prevalent and spousal abuse drives women to shelters all too often, the marriage vows spoken by two people who promise to be there for each other in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, deserves to be heard as widely as possible in our churches today.

The Rev. Randy Bush is pastor of East Liberty Presbyterian Church and author of “The Possibility of Contemporary Prophetic Acts” (bethrandyb@verizon.net).

First Published: December 14, 2014, 5:00 a.m.