Sydney, Australia - Uniting Church congregations disaffected over the ordination of homosexuals could soon form a national network giving them the collective right to reject openly gay ministers.
In a bid to defuse threats of a walkout, the NSW and Queensland leaders of Australia's third-largest denomination have proposed giving the church's theological conservatives autonomy on issues of sexuality and leadership.
In NSW, a working party was set up last year to negotiate with the pressure group Reforming Alliance but has yet to settle outstanding constitutional questions.
The moves came as the leader of the church's largest parish, Wesley Mission, warned that the church was in crisis in the bitter row over gay ministry.
Wesley's superintendent, Gordon Moyes, who departs the congregation next month after 27 years, has blamed "radical left-wing bureaucrats" for the "spiritual warfare" on sexuality and leadership. Failed political ambition, not biblical commitment, was driving the church's agenda.
In his autobiography to be released today, Dr Moyes said church membership was in free-fall. He called on church conservatives opposed to openly gay ministers to form their own alliance, the Evangelical Assembly, within the church with the aim of disengaging from the hierarchy.
More than 6300 people have left the church and 119 congregations have split through the bitter debate about homosexuality, according to the Evangelical Members within the Uniting Church (EMU).
At next June's national assembly, the group wants to roll back the church's 2003 vote asserting the right of parishes to appoint openly gay ministers. As in NSW, Queensland's moderator, David Pitman, has raised with the group a peace-building plan to establish a network of congregations who hold to common principles of theology and mission.
Stephen Ethersby, EMU's spokesman, said the moderator's idea was the first genuine positive sign that change was possible.