Hours after giving their blessing to ordaining noncelibate gays and lesbians, leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) declined late Thursday to change the church\u2019s definition of marriage, in effect refusing to allow same-sex marriages within their denomination.<\/p>\n
If the proposal had been approved, the church\u2019s definition of marriage would have changed from a commitment between \u201ca woman and a man\u201d to \u201ctwo people\u201d and allowed church weddings in states that have legalized gay marriage.<\/p>\n
The late-night decision to table the proposal and subject it to two more years of study caught many delegates at the denomination\u2019s gathering at the Minneapolis Convention Center by surprise, and there was a stunned silence as delegates absorbed the action.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What I don\u2019t understand is how that body can approve gays and lesbians to serve as ordained clergy, but not allow them to get married.\u00a0 Yes, I understand that they will require celibacy \u2014 that\u2019s their answer.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not an answer that makes much sense.<\/p>\n
Hours before the surprise shelving of the marriage measure, the assembly approved changing the denomination\u2019s ordination policy to make noncelibate<\/strong> gays and lesbians eligible to become clergy. The vote was 373 to 323.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nGet that?\u00a0 I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The StarTribune reports: Hours after giving their blessing to ordaining noncelibate gays and lesbians, leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) declined late Thursday to change the church\u2019s definition of marriage, in effect refusing to allow same-sex marriages within their denomination. If the proposal had been approved, the church\u2019s definition of marriage would have changed from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,17,32],"tags":[258,513],"class_list":["post-2102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-in-america","category-glbt","category-same-sex-marriage","tag-ga219","tag-presbyterian"],"yoast_head":"\n
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