c. 2006 Religion News Service
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. _ The nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination, in a seismic shift on the role of gays and lesbians in the church, voted on Tuesday (June 20) to allow local and regional bodies to ordain gays to the church’s ministries.
After nearly three hours of debate, delegates voted 298 to 221 to approve a complex proposal that allows local congregations and regional bodies known as presbyteries to bypass the church’s current ban on “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy.
Current rules from 1996 that require “fidelity in marriage … and chastity in singleness” will remain on the books, but local bodies can now allow exceptions to those standards if they wish.
Those exceptions will still be subject to review by higher bodies.
The proposal came from a blue-ribbon task force that has spent four years studying the issue.
“This is not an `anything goes’ proposal,” said the Rev. Blair Monie, chairman of the committee that brought the proposal. Rather, he said, it was a way to hold the church together by relying on some of its oldest practices.
The Rev. Stacy Johnson, a member of the task force, said the report was “not about sexuality but about the church” and how it moves forward in the midst of conflict.
Opponents, meanwhile, said the new policy “changes everything” in the life of the church and was a “transitional point” on the march toward tossing out all current prohibitions on gay clergy.
The 2.3 million-member church has been debating the issue for nearly 30 years. This time, the debate was intense but polite and restrained _ and sometimes emotional.
“I am against homosexual ordination,” said former moderator Marj Carpenter, her voice breaking. But she said she nevertheless supported the proposal. “I’m willing to compromise if it will get us back to being the church. I love this church, but please, let us get on.”
The so-called “third way” proposal, by the 20-member Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church, revolves around a distinction between “standards” and “essentials.” It would allow individuals who cannot abide by the standards to be ordained if local bodies do not find them in violation of the “essentials” required of new clergy.
In addition, the task force’s proposal is being offered as a new “authoritative interpretation” of church policy that would immediately go into effect. Unlike previous attempts to rescind the gay clergy ban, this policy will not have to be ratified by the denomination’s 173 regional presbyteries.
Opponents argued that it would lead to alienation from sister churches in Africa and Asia and could cause thousands of Korean members to withdraw.
Supporters, however, said the church could no longer exclude gays and lesbians from full participation.
The task force was divided between supporters and opponents of gay ordination, but its proposal to the General Assembly had been adopted unanimously and widely circulated.
(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)
Coming into the assembly, the task force proposal had support from prominent church leaders in both the moderate and evangelical wings of the church. However, it was opposed by some supporters of gay ordination, who did not think it went far enough in allowing such ordinations, and opponents of gay clergy, who argued it opened the floodgates for gays in the ministry.
The proposal leaves untouched two key “standards” that bar “self-affirming, practicing homosexuals persons” from ordination and that require candidates for ordination to be faithful in marriage or chaste in singleness.
Two efforts _ one to replace the proposal with a dissenting minority report, and another to refer the proposal to presbyteries for their consideration _ both failed.
KRE/PH END ANDERSON
