-- From "Presbyterians move to allow gay clergy, but fight remains" by Kimberly Winston, Religion News Service 6/27/08
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The nation's largest Presbyterian denomination on Friday (June 27) cracked open the door to ordaining non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy, though the decades-old fight is far from over.
Delegates at the Presbyterian Church (USA) meeting here voted 54 percent to 46 percent to remove a clause in their constitution that requires clergy to be either married and faithful or single and chaste.
But the action still needs approval by a majority of the denomination's 173 regional bodies, called presbyteries, and similar moves in recent years have twice failed to win ratification on the local level.
"It is more than we expected from this General Assembly," said Jon Walton, co-moderator of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, which supports gay and lesbian clergy. "But it is all that we hoped for."
The setting for this year's assembly in California proved an interesting backdrop for the debate, just a week after the state joined Massachusetts in allowing same-sex couples to marry.
To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.
