AS APPEARED IN THE NEW YORK SUN , MARCH 30 2004

SECTION: NEW YORK; Pg. 3

LENGTH: 416 words

HEADLINE: Ministers Congregate For Marriage

BYLINE: By YAEL KOHEN, Staff Reporter of the Sun

BODY:

   A coalition of ministers from congregations across the city gathered on the steps of City Hall yesterday in support of the biblical definition of marriage as a union between male and female.

   They sang hymns and recited prayers to open the press conference, where they spoke about marriage as a "sacred covenant" with specific guidelines set down by God.

   "We are greatly concerned by recent attempts to redefine marriage," said the Reverend Joseph Mattera of the City Covenant Coalition, a network of city ministers. "This sacred covenant should not be altered to satisfy special

   interest groups and promote the radical agenda of some public officials."

   "We support any law that supports the biblical view" of marriage between a man and woman, said Rev. Mattera of the Resurrection Church in Brooklyn.

   This was the first public display for the coalition, which was formed about four years ago, Rev. Mattera said. More than 100 supporters and congregation members gathered outside City Hall Park after the press conference for a prayer rally.

   The role of New Yorkers in the national debate on gay marriage is escalating as a number of city groups take action on both sides of the issue. The debate intensified a little more than a week ago, when three same-sex couples married on the steps of City Hall to protest criminal charges brought against upstate officials who issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

   Gay-marriage supporters have also filed civil lawsuits against the state to change the law to permit marriage licenses for same-sex couples.

   "No one is trying to redefine religious marriages. This is about government-licensed civil marriages," said the co-chairman of Marriage Equality New York, David Thompson, who came to watch the anti-same-sex rally. "There is nothing sacred about tax code."

   The country as a whole is embroiled in a larger debate of whether to amend the Constitution to define marriage as an institution between a man and woman.

   Supporters of gay marriage call a prohibition of gay marriage a violation of their civil rights.

   But religious groups deny that samesex unions are about basic civil rights.

   "This is not about segregation or race even. This is about a choice people make about their lifestyle," said the Reverend Michael Faulkner of the Central Baptist Church on the Upper West Side at the rally. "You cannot even begin to put that on the same level with how a person is born and the racial discrimination that took place with African-Americans in this country."