Presbyterians Reject Support for Gay Ordination
Members of a regional body in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have rejected a proposal supporting gay ordination.
Maumee Valley Presbytery, the PC(USA) body of northwestern Ohio and southeastern Michigan, voted 61-56 on Tuesday against the proposal and held off a vote on a more specific ban against the ordination of gays and lesbians until November.
"We lost," said the Rev. Michelle Stecker, the only openly gay ordained minister in the regional body, according to The Toledo Blade.
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Stecker was ordained in 1989 and realized she was a lesbian two years later, she said during the debate on the resolution, as reported by the local newspaper. In her 18 years of ministry, she said she served five congregations and people came to faith at all five of them.
With Presbyterians divided on the issue of homosexuality, Stecker said, "It's time to take a stand on this issue."
Despite losing the vote, Stecker noted that the votes are "always close."
"We will move forward, and justice will prevail," she stated, according to the Blade.
The motion had been proposed by First Presbyterian Church in Bowling Green. First Presbyterian's delegate, Marcy St John, said barring homosexuals from leadership roles is "denying equality in our church to somewhere between 6 million and 30 million persons ... simply because God created them differently," according to the local Blade.
Much of the opposition to the proposal was directed toward the wording as well as the timing of the vote, considering that Massachusetts is the only state where same-sex "marriage" is legal.
If the proposal was approved, it would have gone to the meeting of the General Assembly – the denomination's highest governing body – in June 2008.
Paulding Presbyterian Church proposed earlier during Tuesday's presbytery meeting a motion that more specifically bars gay ordination. With Paulding considering withdrawal from the regional PC(USA) body, however, debate on the proposal was delayed.
A small but growing number of conservative congregations within the PC(USA) – the nation's largest Presbyterian denomination – has cut ties with the denomination and more are threatening to leave. Conservative Presbyterians are discontent with the liberal direction of the PC(USA), particularly over issues of homosexual ordination and the singular saving Lordship of Jesus Christ.
The PC(USA)'s current constitutional standard requires "fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman" or "chastity in singleness." However, the 2006 General Assembly adopted an "authoritative interpretation" of the ordination standard that allows some leeway to churches for homosexual ordination.
Earlier this year, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church created a New Wineskins Transitional Presbytery along with transitional presbyteries to house an increasing number of dissident Presbyterians seeking membership in the smaller and more conservative denomination.
EPC was formed in 1981 after its members felt increasingly alienated by liberalism in the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., the "northern" branch of Presbyterianism, which merged with the Southern and border-state Presbyterian Church in the U.S. in 1983 to form the present Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
