Presbyterian Church (USA) clears way for openly gay clergy

After 33 years of debate, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has voted to change its constitution and allow openly gay people in same-sex relationships to be ordained as ministers, elders and deacons.

The move is a reversal from two years ago, when a majority of the church's regions, known as presbyteries, voted against ordaining openly gay candidates.

This time, 19 of the church's 173 presbyteries switched their votes from no to yes in recent months.

The Twin Cities presbytery, which covers Minneapolis and St. Paul, cast the deciding vote Tuesday. The vote was 205-56, with three abstentions.

All five presbyteries in Washington state voted against the amendment, as they did when similar measures came up in years past.

That means it's unlikely Presbyterian churches in this state would ordain noncelibate gay and lesbian ministers, since the amendment allows each local presbytery to decide whether to do so, said Corey Schlosser-Hall, executive presbyter of the North Puget Sound Presbytery, which covers North King, Snohomish and other counties.

Besides ministers, the Presbyterian Church ordains deacons and elders. Unlike ministers, who are ordained by the presbytery, deacons and elders are ordained by individual congregations.

So congregations in this state that would want to ordain gays or lesbians as deacons or elders would presumably be able to do so, Schlosser-Hall said.

Unlike some other mainline Protestant denominations in the state, which tend to be liberal, the Presbyterian denomination here tends to be more conservative.

Although by the time the vote was taken in Minneapolis the outcome was expected, Presbyterian officials said that even a few months ago they would not have predicted the church was ready to change its policy.

"All of us are surprised," said the Rev. Gradye Parsons, the church's Stated Clerk, its highest elected official.

He attributed the vote turnabout to both the growing acceptance of homosexuality in the larger culture and to church members simply wearying of the conflict.

"We've been having this conversation for 33 years, and some people are ready to get to the other side of this decision," he said.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) now joins a growing bloc of historic, mainline Protestant churches that have voted to accept gay clergy members and church leaders — a bloc that includes the United Church of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Episcopal Church.

(The largest mainline Protestant denomination, the United Methodist Church, is still fighting over the issue).

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has about 2 million members.

The Presbyterian Church in America, a much smaller and more conservative denomination, prohibits the ordination of women and openly gay candidates.

The Rev. Heidi Vardeman, senior minister of Macalaster Plymouth United Church in St. Paul, and a spokeswoman for a pro-gay church group called "More Light Presbyterians," said in an interview, "Finally, the denomination has seen the error of its ways and it will repent, which means, literally, to turn around.

Information from Seattle Times staff reporter Janet Tu is included in this report.