Presbyterian leaders approve gay clergy policy

from Stand Firm by Greg Griffith

Is there some vortex always hovering over Minneapolis that causes Christian denominations to go all suicidal?

Presbyterian leaders voted Thursday to allow non-celibate gays in committed relationships to serve as clergy, approving the first of two policy changes that could make their church one of the most gay-friendly major Christian denominations in the U.S.

But the vote isn't a final stamp of approval for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) or its more than 2 million members.

Delegates voted during the church's general assembly in Minneapolis, with 53 percent approving the more liberal policy on gay clergy. A separate vote is expected later Thursday on whether to change the church's definition of marriage from between "a man and a woman" to between "two people."

Under current church policy, Presbyterians are only eligible to become clergy, deacons or elders if they are married or celibate. The new policy would strike references to sexuality altogether in favor of candidates committed to "joyful submission to worship of Christ."

But such changes must be approved by a majority of the church's 173 U.S. presbyteries. The assembly voted two years ago to liberalize the gay clergy policy, but it died last year when 94 of the presbyteries voted against it.

Still, the proposed changes "have the potential to be historic," said Cindy Bolbach, an elder at National Capital Presbytery in Washington and the assembly's elected moderator.

Oh they'll be historic, all right. Historians will look back on it as the day the PCUSA took one of its biggest steps toward the cliff off which the Episcopalians are now plummeting.