Universal Life Church Monastery Fights for its Ministers Rights in Michigan

June 14, 2011 - PRLog -- The Universal Life Church Monastery was recently contacted by one of its many ministers to inform us of difficulties he experienced while attempting to verify that Kent County, Michigan would accept his ordination credential. This minister was told by the Kent County clerk, a publicly-elected official by the name of Mary Hollinrake, that if he were to make it clear on a marriage license that he was ordained by the Universal Life Church or any other online ministry she would refuse to accept the marriage license on the grounds that his ordination wasn’t “real”.

In addition to this flagrant attack on this ULC minister’s First Amendment rights (which you can read about here: http://ulccaselaw.com/), Hollinrake also mentioned that she and a number of other county clerks in Michigan were actively working to ban those who receive online ordinations from performing legal weddings and receiving marriage licenses in that state. Hollinrake even expressed that she believes the process of getting ordained online is a sham and that it would be “ludicrous” for anyone to take online ordination seriously. (Read more about Hollinrake’s statements here: http://blog.themonastery.org/2011/06/ulc-monastery-ordina...)

The Universal Life Church Monastery is not the kind of organization that takes violations of First Amendment rights seriously. Within days of its minister’s experience, the ULC Monastery’s fearless presiding chaplain, Brother Martin Freeman, had drafted and sent a letter to Hollinrake warning her against pursuing an online ordination ban in Michigan. He notified Hollinrake that the ULC Monastery would not hesitate to file a class action lawsuit against her and any other county clerks in league with her if they ceased recognizing the legality of ordinations granted by online ministries like the ULC. (Read the full text of this letter here: http://www.ulc.org/2011/06/14/letter-to-mary-hollinrake/)

Brother Martin firmly encourages any ULC minister who has their right to officiate wedding ceremonies denied from them by public servants to notify the ULC Monastery at help@themonastery.org. He pledges to assist them with the humble yet by no means meager resources of the ULC Monastery to restore their rights. Also, because Hollinrake’s thoughts on online ministries are shared by a sizable portion of the American population, Brother Martin believes that it is necessary to dissuade common misconceptions about online ordinations whenever they are encountered. A recent ULC Blog post (which can be at http://www.ulc.org/2011/06/10/misconceptions-about-online...) discusses these misconceptions and how to address them.

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The Universal Life Church Monastery was founded in 2006 and has ordained hundreds of thousands of ministers through our free and fast online ordination process. These ministers have gone on to perform weddings for thousands of loving couples.