http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/jul/10/blessed-event/?partner=yahoo_h...
A year ago, Pat Hendrickson and Kate Lewis were coaxing a donkey along a
path in Ireland as part of "The Amazing Race" reality television series.
On Wednesday, a brand of reality they described as similarly surreal brought
the Episcopalian women into the Ventura County Clerk and Recorder's Office.
There, in front of 20 friends and family members, including Hendrickson's
two tie-wearing grandsons, they were married.
"Who would ever have thought we would do that?" Hendrickson said of the
CBS-TV show that brought the women to Ireland and Amsterdam for adventures
that included riding a high-wire bicycle over a ravine. "And a year ago, who
would ever have thought we would do this?"
The women have been together 11 years and were joined in a blessing ceremony
at Saint Augustine by the Sea Episcopal Church in Santa Monica in 2004. Both
are clergy in a denomination that like many others struggles with gay
marriage. Lewis is a priest, and Hendrickson, formerly director of youth and
family ministries at St. Patrick's Episcopal Church in Thousand Oaks, is an
ordained deacon.
