Shannon Creighton (left) and Ben Chumley celebrate their wedding after two South Carolina United Methodist pastors officiated the state’s first same-sex wedding in a church.
South Carolina United Methodist Advocate | July 30, 2025
SPARTANBURG — South Carolina pastors officiated the first same-sex wedding in a United Methodist church this spring. And for new spouses Shannon Creighton and Ben Chumley, they’re now feeling both loved by their church family and “complete.”
Chumley, director of music at Trinity UMC, Spartanburg, and Creighton, Trinity missions chair who works in education technology, were married at Trinity March 15, which was their 10-year dating anniversary.
“I feel more complete, like I can now fully participate in my church,” Chumley told the Advocate, noting that he’s helped with hundreds of weddings in his role at the church. “Now to be able to participate in that myself is both fulfilling and full circle.”
The wedding came less than a year after the denomination’s General Conference removed long-standing language from its Book of Discipline stating “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching,” removed bans against officiating at same-sex weddings and removed the ban on the ordination of clergy who are “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.”
South Carolina UMC elders the Revs. Ricky Howell and Sherry M. Wood officiated the ceremony, which featured a crowd of roughly 250 well-wishers including church and church choir members, family and friends. Some of those friends had experienced much hurt in the past by their own rejection from churches, and the couple said for many of them, it was their first time setting foot in a church in years. Creighton and Chumley said they hoped these friends would understand the church is a place for kindness, hope and mercy.
Chumley said he and Creighton had talked about marriage many times over the years. But as people deeply committed to their faith, they wanted to get married in their own church, so they waited.
“As somebody who grew up in church, and church is big part of my life and my job, it was important that this be a religious ceremony,” Chumley said. “It was important to us that it be in our community with our church family.”
Creighton said their church was excited when General Conference struck down the homosexuality bans last year, and their church council voted unanimously to accept those decisions. He said when they submitted their application for marriage at that meeting, there were cheers.
Getting married in their own church was incredibly fulfilling, Creighton said. He noted even those he thought were conflicted about same-sex marriage came to the wedding and congratulated them.
“It was beautiful,” he said, calling the event “not only a celebration of us but a celebration of our church.”
The ceremony incorporated a number of religious elements, including singing from the entire chancel choir, five acolytes, a homily, Scripture readings and a hymn, “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace.” They based the service on Micah, noting the theme was the traditional definition of shalom, meaning peace, completeness, wholeness and unity. Instead of a registry, donations were collected to support two local charities, Total Ministries in Spartanburg, a food bank and financial services nonprofit, and Piedmont Care, which provides HIV and AIDS care, prevention and advocacy.
Howell said co-officiating the wedding was an honor, as throughout his 20 years in full-time ministry he’s had plenty of time to lament what he calls “the heartbreaking reality” that the church and other faith communities have often told people in the LGBTQ+ community they don’t belong there, that God doesn’t want them in a church setting.
“It’s been a tremendous privilege to stand alongside Ben and Shannon and help offer a response that I believe is more faithful to God’s heart and more reflective of the movement of the Holy Spirit: ‘Yes! This is who you are! Yes! This is who God made you to be! Yes! You are beloved and valued and beautiful in God’s eyes and in the eyes of this Body of Christ!’” Howell said.
Wood said much the same.
“It’s hard to describe the breadth of feelings I experienced while officiating the wedding of my two dear friends. Of course, I felt ecstatic for Ben and Shannon and thrilled to bear witness to their inspiring relationship that, in every instance, has been a force for good in this world,” Wood said. “But alongside that, I felt the overwhelming joy that comes from being swept up in the healing current of justice.”
Wood said she has never seen a congregation more jubilant and never been more proud to call herself United Methodist.
“Finally, after such a long and arduous fight—a Service of Christian Marriage in the South Carolina UMC that truly embodied the inclusion modeled by Jesus in the Gospels,” Wood said.
Now, Creighton and Chumley are settling into married life with their dog.
Creighton said he never wanted them to be “the face of the fight,” but if their wedding in a UMC can inspire other churches or couples to take that step, he’s happy.
Jessica Brodie
Jessica Brodie is editor of the South Carolina Advocate, the news journal of the South Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. This article is republished with permission from the Advocate website.