The Church defines marriage as a covenant, mutually entered into by its participants. In this respect, my partner, Thomas, and I are as married as anyone else I know... I have always believed that the church's pri mary function is to promote the love of God. It has a long history, how ever, of not practicing what it preaches (Robert Van Etten, parishioner of Most Holy Redeemer Parish, San Francisco, 28 March 1998).