CHURCH DEFROCKS PRIEST FOR MARRYING HOMOSEXUALS

(Novgorod, Russia) Adding to the debate concerning homosexuality and Christianity, the Russian Orthodox Church defrocked Father Vladimir Enert for performing a homosexual marriage ceremony for Denis Gogolev and Mikhail Morozov. The Church branded the act as blasphemous.

"We defrocked him, prohibited him from serving and condemned the act itself, which we saw as pure blasphemy," said Father Igor Pchelintsev, spokesman for the diocese of Nizhny Novgorod . . ."

Although a crime under the Soviet government, homosexual relations between men became legal in 1993. The country, however, remains vehemently against homosexuality. The Orthodox Church bans same-sex marriage and homosexual priests and also advocates not having homosexuals in teaching jobs or senior positions in the military and prisons.