WINNIPEG — The Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, Winnipeg’s oldest and largest congregation, is going to be performing same-sex commitment ceremonies as of Jan. 1, 2010.

“We are hoping that some gay couples will take advantage of our new policy,” said Rabbi Alan Green, senior rabbi of the Conservative shul.

“This is the culmination of a three-year process,” he said. “We wanted to do this step by step. In 2008, we began by explicitly selling joint burial plots in our cemetery to openly gay couples. This year, we began accepting gay couples as family memberships, rather than just as individuals. Conducting [same-sex commitment] ceremonies is the last step.”

Rabbi Green, however, said he is not expecting same-sex couples to bust down the doors in a stampede for commitment ceremonies.

The Shaarey Zedek, which has a membership of 1,100, may well be the first Conservative congregation in Canada to begin performing same-sex commitment ceremonies.

Rabbi Green said that the Conservative movement’s stand on homosexuality remains ambiguous.

In December 2006, the movement’s legal authority, the committee on Jewish law and standards, endorsed three opinions on the question of homosexuality. Two upheld the movement’s traditional stance barring gay clergy and commitment ceremonies, while a third opened the door to gay rabbis and commitment ceremonies, according to a JTA report.

“In the end, the decision [on whether to perform commitment ceremonies] has been left to the discretion of individual congregations,” Rabbi Green said.

In 1999, Winnipeg’s Temple Shalom, under the leadership of Rabbi Michael Levinson, began conducting same-sex marriages. The late Rabbi Levinson left the small Reform temple, which has about 120 member families, seven years ago. The congregation was without a permanent rabbi until last summer.

Judith Huebner, a past president of Temple Shalom, said that the congregation’s new spiritual leader, Rabbi Karen Soria, has officiated at numerous same-sex wedding services over the past year. Many of the couples were not affiliated with the congregation, Huebner said.

Rabbi Green said that Rabbi David Mivasair in Vancouver conducts commitment ceremonies. Rabbi Mivasair, who on his website identifies himself as a Progressive, is the spiritual leader of Vancouver’s Ahavat Olam congregation and Seattle’s Eitz Or. Or Shalom Congregation, which identifies itself as a Renewal congregation in Vancouver, conducts commitment ceremonies in cases where both individuals are Jewish.

While Shaarey Zedek’s commitment ceremony will be modelled after the traditional marriage ceremony, there will be a difference, Rabbi Green said. “The concept of kiddushin in the traditional marriage ceremony sanctifies the marriage between a man and a woman, he explained. For same-sex ceremonies, he will be using the term, “brit” – or “covenant” – rather than “kiddushin.”

Rabbi Green said that there will be some traditionalists in his congregation who will not be in favour of same-sex commitment ceremonies performed by their rabbis, but he believes that the vast majority of the congregation will support the new policy.

“It is a matter of fairness,” he said. “Besides, the more traditional members of the congregation will only be exposed to a [same-sex commitment] ceremony if they are in attendance at the ceremony.”

Elliott Leven, a Jewish gay activist, said the Shaarey Zedek’s decision to allow same-sex commitment ceremonies is a “pleasant surprise.”

“That’s very good news. I have been writing letters to the Shaarey Zedek for the last couple of years, asking them about their position on this issue, but I never got a reply,” Leven said.

“I hope that other congregations follow the Shaarey Zedek’s lead.”