Some officials will try a third time to repeal a 1997 provision in the church's constitution that prohibits non-celibate homosexuals from being ordained as clergy or as elders and deacons, offices held by lay people.
The 215th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which starts Saturday runs through May 31, is shaping up as a battle between activists on opposite ends of the issue with a large moderate group choosing to work quietly for repeal of the ban. "There's been considerable discontent over the last year that there's too much defiance going on, that people just aren't enforcing the constitution," church spokesman Jerry Van Marter said.
Nearly 30 cases alleging violation of the constitutional provision are pending in church courts, and the denomination narrowly avoided a showdown on the gay issue earlier this year. Petitioners won enough signatures to require the denomination's leaders to call a special assembly on enforcing the gay clergy ban.
It would have been the first such assembly in the denomination's history, but 13 signers withdrew their names, leaving petitioners short of the minimum needed under church law.
Still, over the next week, the 548-member General Assembly - the Presbyterians' elected policy makers - will consider related proposals interpreting the gay clergy ban and strengthening its enforcement.
A report on families also is expected to escalate the fight over gays and lesbians because critics fear it gives equal weight to nontraditional families: those headed by single parents, grandparents and same-sex couples.
Other Protestant denominations, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church, also have been deeply divided over the role of homosexuals in their faith.
The 2.5 million-member Presbyterian church is losing roughly 35,000 members a year, and the Rev. Parker Williamson, who heads the conservative Presbyterian Lay Committee, believes frustration with church leaders who won't enforce the ban is part of the reason.
Other Presbyterians feel it's un-Christian to exclude people based on their sexual orientation and think division over the issue is just part of the church's evolution. "Over 50 years ago, we removed a ban on women serving in the church. There were all kinds of people who said, `This will split the church,'" said Michael Adee, who is gay and an elder in the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe, N.M.
The General Assembly voted in 1997 and 2001 to repeal the ban, and sent the matter to the church's regional governing bodies - which rejected the idea by large margins.
The Covenant Network of Presbyterians has previously worked to overturn the provision, but won't this time. Network leaders said in a statement that another vote will further divide people, and that they will instead work "to create a climate in which change can and will occur." "Whatever happens in this General Assembly, this isn't going to go away," said Mitzi Henderson of Menlo Park, Calif., a member of More Light Presbyterians.
Williamson said he expects efforts to approve gay ordination to fail, while there will be a countermove to beef up a proposal clamping down on gay ordinations.
The assembly, split evenly between clergy and lay people, also will also discuss late-term abortions. Members will elect a moderator, who presides over the convention and serves as church figurehead until the next year. The Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel of Atlanta has served the past year.
