The top court in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will hold a trial on whether the Louisville-based denomination should convene a special legislative session to address controversies over homosexuality.
The church’s Permanent Judicial Commission has set a March 17 church trial in Kansas City, Mo., where it will hear a Canton, Ohio, church’s challenge to the denomination’s moderator, the Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel.
A regular General Assembly is scheduled for May, but it is unclear whether the church could organize a special session even if the court rules that it should do so.
On Jan. 14, California church elder Alex Metherell filed a petition seeking to call the denomination’s General Assembly into its first-ever special session. He wanted the session to respond to congregations that are defying church law by ordaining gays and holding wedding-like services for them.
But Abu-Akel announced Jan. 27 he would not call the special session.
Westminster Presbyterian Church of Canton has filed a legal challenge, accusing Abu-Akel of ordering a revote once the petition was filed.