TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The longtime music director at a northern Michigan church said he was fired just a few months before retirement after officials learned that he was in a same-sex marriage, a dismissal that has angered members and led to sidewalk protests by the choir. “He’s extremely talented, he’s perfect on the piano, he has perfect pitch and because of him, I look forward to going to church every week,” said Bob Holden, a chorister at St. Francis Church in Traverse City. The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is a lifelong union between a man and a woman. “We take employee privacy very seriously and are not able to disclose details about individual personnel matters,” the Diocese of Gaylord, which oversees St. Francis, said in a written statement. In a time where there is so much controversy in the world, the church needs to be a place of peace, and instead it’s turmoil after turmoil,” church member Toni Stanfield said.

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Persons: “, ”, Bob Holden, Francis Church, “ I’m, ” Holden, Fred Szczepanski, Michael Lingaur, Szczepanski, Pope Francis, Francis, Toni Stanfield Organizations: Catholic Church, Gaylord, Sunday Locations: CITY, Mich, Michigan, Traverse City, Traverse, Nevada