MINNEAPOLIS — Gay and lesbian advocates celebrated a landmark victory May 10 when the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) entered the expanding ranks of Christian denominations that allow openly gay, partnered clergy.
The winds of change, they said, are at their backs.
“Presbyterians join a growing Protestant movement of Lutherans, Episcopalians and United Church of Christ members who have eliminated official barriers to leadership by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons,” a coalition of pro-gay Presbyterians said in a statement.
Officially, the PCUSA’s decades-old barrier will fall in July, after Presbyterians in Minnesota voted to effectively revoke a rule that had barred sexually active gays and lesbians from becoming ministers, elders and deacons.
The new policy, which was passed by the church’s general assembly last summer, required approval from a majority of 173 regional presbyteries.
But even as gay and lesbians celebrated, some acknowledged that steep challenges lie ahead in other faith groups, particularly the country’s largest four: the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, the United Methodist Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Those four faith groups, whose leaders show few signs of accepting gay clergy or relationships, together count nearly 100 million members.
By contrast, the four largest Protestant groups that allow gay clergy together count less than 11 million members. PCUSA, for example, has about 2.1 million members. (TAB)
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