(Sort of)
On Friday, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), meeting in San Jose, voted to drop an ordination requirement that clergy observe “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between and a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.” This is the third time the General Assembly has tried to lift the ban on gay clergy; previous attempts in 1997 and 2001 were turned down by the presbyteries.
The General Assembly declined to change the PCUSA’s definition of marriage as a covenant between “a man and a woman.”
There is one concrete change coming out of this General Assembly, though. The assembly voted to allow candidates for ordination to register a conscientious objection to the clause excluding sexually active homosexuals. Each presbytery and church council can now decide for itself whether such a conscientious objection disqualifies that candidate from ordination. As a result, PCUSA presbyteries can now ordain sexually active homosexuals if they want.
This last change puts the PCUSA ahead of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States. The ELCA doesn’t officially allow the ordination of gay clergy, but leaves it to the bishops’ discretion whether to allow gay clergy to serve. Last year’s ELCA Churchwide Assembly urged the bishops not to defrock gay clergy.
The PCUSA is by far the largest U.S. denomination of the Presbyterian/Reformed tradition, more than ten times the size of the next largest Presbyterian denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America. The United Church of Christ, which includes many former Reformed congregations, first allowed gay clergy in 1971, and now allows gay clergy in all but one regional association, though each congregation is free to make its own decision.
The United Church of Canada, which includes many former Presbyterian congregations, first allowed gay clergy in 1988, and some clergy now celebrate marriages for same-sex couples. However, like the United Church of Christ, the United Church of Canada maintains a congregational polity that allows a more conservative position on the local level.
Read more:
Presbyterian leaders OK gay clergy (Los Angeles Times)
Presbyterian assembly votes to drop gay clergy ban (Associated Press)
PCUSA Assembly Approves Deleting Gay Clergy Ban (The Christian Post)
disgraceful 😦