c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination will tackle the question of gay and lesbian clergy at its biennial General Assembly next week (June 20-28) in San Jose, Calif.

After more than 30 years of back-and-forth debate, the Presbyterian Church (USA) will try once again to settle a perennial fight over whether non-celibate gays and lesbians should be ordained to church pulpits.

Most recently, the fight has centered on rules adopted in 1996 that mandate “fidelity within the covenant of marriage” or “chastity in singleness” for all clergy.

Two years ago, after spending four years studying the issue, the church approved a delicate compromise that kept that language on the books but essentially said gays and lesbians could be ordained after they registered a conscientious objection to the policy.

That compromise fell apart in February when the church’s highest court said the compromise was unconstitutional. Jack Haberer, the editor of the independent Presbyterian Outlook magazine, summed up the court’s decision this way: “You can disagree in principle, but you can’t disobey in practice.”

When the 2.3 million-member church convenes in San Jose, delegates, called commissioners, will face 22 overtures, or resolutions, on gay clergy _ 11 them supporting the current law, and 11 attempting to override the court’s February decision.

Delegates will also elect two top officers _ a moderator, who will be the public face of the denomination for the next two years; and a stated clerk, who is the highest elected official and serves a four-year term.

The current stated clerk, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, has led the church for 12 years and declined to seek a fourth four-year term. A nominating committee has tapped a church veteran, Gradye Parsons, to take Kirkpatrick’s place. Three other men are also running for the post.

Some pro-gay groups are pushing to gut the “fidelity and chastity” language from the constitution, but moderate groups are resisting that move because two previous attempts to rescind failed badly.

The assembly’s location in California _ where gay and lesbian couples flooded county clerks’ offices to obtain marriage licenses Tuesday (June 17) _ may well color the tone of the debate, and has not gone unnoticed.

One of the proposed overtures, known as the New Hope Overture, seeks to reword the church’s definition of marriage from a union between a man and a woman to one between two committed adults.

Another would allow regional bodies _ called presbyteries _ to ordain pastors regardless of their sexual orientation or sexual activity.

“We look forward to the day when the church no longer has that restriction on its clergy,” said the Rev. John Walton, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in New York, N.Y., and a leader in the moderate to progressive Covenant Network.

Conservatives, however, remain resistant to any changes in current policy. Terry Schlossberger, a leader of the evangelical Presbyterian Coalition, said the church’s rules on gay and lesbian clergy are “consistent with Scriptures and the history of this denomination.”

“Our group would like to see the commissioners affirm the existing ordination standards,” she said. “… And lift up a hope-filled response to those who are living in sexual sin and the good gift of marriage between a man and a woman as God’s plan for humankind.”

Another resolution calls for a revision to the church’s Heidelberg Cathechism, a statement of faith published in 1563 that speaks of “homosexual perversion.”

KRE/PH END WINSTON