The governing board of the largest Presbyterian body in the United States voted decisively yesterday in favor of lifting the church's ban on the ordination of gays and lesbians as ministers and other clergy of the church.
After a debate that ran more than two hours, delegates to the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted 317 to 208 to lift the ban, a 60 percent margin for advocates of the proposal. The measure must be ratified by a majority of the church's 173 regional governing bodies, or presbyteries, over the next year before it can take effect.
The vote by the governing board of a mainline Protestant denomination was a clear victory for gay rights advocates. It appeared likely to intensify the debate over extending to gays and lesbians full participation in religious denominations, including the right to ordination. Several denominations have struggled with this issue in recent years, but few have gone as far as the Presbyterian Church (USA) did yesterday.
The United Church of Christ has adopted a policy that states sexual orientation alone should not be a bar to ordination. But the issue has bitterly divided most mainline Protestant denominations, as it did the Presbyterians yesterday during what was described as a sometimes passionate debate at a meeting in Louisville.
Emily Odom, with the Presbyterian News Service, said it was difficult to predict whether a majority of the presbyteries would ratify yesterday's action. The last time the issue confronted the church, in 1997, the presbyteries voted 97 to 74 to ratify new language in the church constitution that officially adopted the ban on ordination of gays and lesbians as church law.
The presbyteries must vote on the new proposal before the church's next General Assembly, which is scheduled for next June in Columbus, Ohio.
After yesterday's vote, the Presbyterian Coalition, a group of organizations that oppose the ordination of gays, issued a statement calling the assembly's action "deeply distressing" and declaring that "it is unthinkable that a majority of Presbyterians favor the removal of our ordination standards."
Jerry Van Marter, the church's chief spokesman, said opponents of lifting the ban are warning that it could tear the church apart.
"Twice in the last five years we've voted on this, and each time it tears at the fabric of our presbytery," said Ted Mikels, an elder of the Salem Presbytery in North Carolina. "To send this out again will create greater rancor and polarization. We need prayer and study and dialogue, not more legislation."
The Rev. M. Paul Nelson of San Diego added that the measure was "an emotional time bomb that will do great damage when it is dropped on the presbyteries."
But advocates of the proposal argued that the ban against ordination of gays and lesbians was the cause of "an absence of peace in the church." Removing the ban, said John Buchanan, a former General Assembly moderator, "creates space to live and work together."
"How can we talk openly and honestly while preserving legislation that prevents openness and honesty, and where some are kept away from the table," added Kathryn Morgan, an elder of the West Jersey Presbytery.
In 1978, the Presbyterian Church adopted an "authoritative interpretation" of the church's constitution that barred the ordination of "self-affirming, practicing homosexuals" to church office. In 1996, the General Assembly officially adopted the ban as part of its constitution, or Book of Order, by approving a new section requiring ministers and other ordained church officers "to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness." It was that language the presbyteries ratified in 1997.
But yesterday, the 213th General Assembly voted to delete that language from the church constitution and to declare the 23-year-old "authoritative interpretation" to be of "no further force or effect." The delegates also approved an addition to the constitution stating that "suitability to hold office is determined by the governing body where the examination for ordination or installation takes place, guided by scriptural and constitutional standards under the authority and Lordship of Jesus Christ."
If ratified, yesterday's action will clear the way for gays and lesbians to become ministers, as well as elders and deacons -- lower-ranking but ordained church officers -- in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
With about 2.6 million members, the church is smaller than several other mainline Protestant denominations, including the Southern Baptist Convention, the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). The largest religious denomination in the country is the Roman Catholic Church, which has more than 60 million members.
Staff writer Bill Broadway and staff researcher Lynn Davis contributed to this report.