1.   One day the church will bless same-sex unions.

2.   The church regularly blesses things like army barracks and new downtown offices, but this may be its first benediction for a U.S. soft drink manufacturer.

3.   The church blesses yachts, tanks, animals, houses and countless other things.

4.   The feast remembers the baptism of Christ, and the church blesses all of the water it uses in its ceremonies at that time.

5.   The questions of whether noncelibate homosexuals may be priests and whether the church may bless same-sex unions are the most bitterly contested issues among Episcopalians.

6.   Three-fourths of all marriages are blessed by churches, yet half of new ones dissolve.