Dear editor:An item in last Wednesday’s Comox Valley Record’s Have Your Say column wondered why some local churches have difficulty answering three simple questions:• What is your denomination’s stand on ordination of women?• Do you perform gay marriages at your church?• Does your church acknowledge that there are other valid ways to know God?As an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada (Cumberland United) I have some thoughts both personal and denominational on this subject.The United Church of Canada has ordained women since 1935, and since same-sex marriages became legal in Canada, each United Church congregation has been asked to form a marriage policy around this question.My personal view is that couples who are legally eligible to marry in Canada and wish to be married in a Christian ceremony are welcome to be married in the church.The United Church has no specific policy about the question about other valid ways to know God, but the theological spectrum in the United Church at large and in most congregations is wide and diverse, including many who would argue for an inclusive approach to such a question.While our path as Christians is through following the teachings of Jesus the Christ, my personal view is that the vastness of the mystery of the Sacred cannot be understood or contained wholly by any human or by any particular religion, sect or denomination.We can grow closer to God and deeper in compassion — and we can understand our own traditions better — through a more intimate awareness of all the world's religions.Rev. Julianne Kasmer,Cumberland