Presbyterian Church Votes To
Allow Gay Marriages
Jaweed Kaleem jaweed.kaleem@huffingtonpost.com
Posted: 06/19/2014 5:15 pm EDT
In a monumental move, the nation's largest
Presbyterian denomination voted
Thursday to change its definition of marriage and allow its pastors to
officiate same-sex ceremonies in states where gay
marriage is legal.
By a vote of 429-175, leaders of the 1.76
million-member Presbyterian Church (USA) voted during the biennial General
Assembly in Detroit
to change the denomination's Book of Order to describe marriage as being
between "two people."
The decision opens a path toward gay
marriage across the denomination's 10,000 churches.
A majority of the church's 172 regional
bodies, called Presbyteries, must now approve the decision before it's
official, a process that can take up to a year. But after years of failed
efforts to get the church to approve gay marriages, LGBT activists and pastors
said they were optimistic.
“This is a glorious day for the church and
for LGBT people who have been seeking full inclusion here for decades,”
Pittsburgh-based Rev. Randy Bush, the co-moderator of the board for pro-LGBT
church group Covenant Network, said in a statement.
In a separate vote, 371 to 238, the church
assembly also approved a measure to allow pastors who minister in places where
same-sex marriage is legal, which currently includes 19 states and the District of Columbia, to
officiate those weddings. That move is final and doesn't need further approval.
Many smaller, more conservative
Presbyterian denominations, including the Presbyterian Church in America
and Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians, don't ordain gay people or
official same-sex marriages.
But the decisions for the USA group,
which came after hours of tense debate, follow years of discussions on the
meaning of marriage in the church and a rapidly changing tide of support for
religious and civil same-sex marriage. The Presbyterian Church (USA) voted in
May 2011 to allow the ordination of openly gay men and women in same-sex
relationships, and other Christian denominations have also increasingly
ordained openly gay clergy.
The Episcopal Church
started allowing same-sex marriage blessings last year, though individual
priests have been performing gay marriage ceremonies for years in states where
they are legal. The United Church of Christ
has allowed same-sex marriages since 2005. Going further back, the Unitarian
Universalist Association of Congregations has officially supported same-sex
marriages since 1996. The Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America
allows individual church ministers to make decisions on gay marriages. Among
Jews, two of the three major Jewish denominations, Reform and Conservative,
allow same-sex marriages.
Like most religious groups that have
policies allowing same-sex marriage, Presbyterians decided Thursday to let
pastors who are against gay marriages make the choice to not perform them.
Some speakers at the assembly said they
were afraid the decision would cause more conservative people to leave the
church, which has been gradually losing members. As recently as 2010, the
Presbyterian Church (USA) had 2.1 million members. Hundreds of congregations
have defected in recent years, in part because of the church's increasingly
liberal views on gay issues.
To combat splintering, Presbyterians voted
to include language that marriage is not only between "two people,"
but also "traditionally of a man a woman" in the change passed
Thursday.
While all Presbyterian Church (USA)
congregations are affiliated nationally, congregations tend to differ widely in
worship style and views on homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Liberal pastors
are known to publicly and privately officiate same-sex marriages, but the
church has censured some of these people. In one high-profile case in 2010, the
church's highest court found a California
minister guilty of misconduct for officiating gay marriage ceremonies.
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Rescue Committee.
Clifford
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and a leadership council member for the Robin Hood Foundation.
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Georgette
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Clifford
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and a leadership council member for the Robin Hood Foundation.
Maurice
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Howard S.
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Roman
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