United States: US Episcopal church leaders have rejected a temporary ban against gay bishops, while Presbyterians agreed to let local and regional governing bodies decide whether to ordain gay or lesbian ministers.
The actions by the churches' governing assemblies could cause further rifts in denominations already coping with theological divisions over homosexuality and declining membership.
The Episcopal House of Deputies, composed of more than 800 lay leaders and clergy, has been meeting in Columbus, Ohio. The Episcopal Church, with 2.3 million members in the US, is part of the worldwide Anglican communion.
Leading Anglican officials had asked the US church to approve a temporary ban on gay bishops after Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, was elected bishop of New Hampshire three years ago.
Bishop Robinson is the US's only gay Episcopal bishop, although in May two gay men and a lesbian were among six finalists to become bishop of a San Francisco Bay Area diocese.
The US's largest Presbyterian group, meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, approved the new policy that enables local and regional church bodies to approve the ordination of gays and lesbians on a case-by-case basis.
While leaving intact a church law that requires ministers and lay leaders to practise "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness", representatives of the US Presbyterian Church voted to adopt the measure by a margin of 77 votes. In effect, the policy has created a loophole that would allow gays and lesbians to serve as ministers, even though the policy does not endorse gay clergy.
"It's a compromise that allows the church to live together in peace," said the Rev Jon Walton, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of New York City.
But the Rev Donald Baird, a pastor from Sacramento, California, said he was concerned that the new policy would undermine church unity. "We used to act as one church," Rev Baird said. "Now we'll have 11,000 churches."
The policy gives sessions (board of trustees of local churches) and presbyteries (regional governing bodies) leeway to decide who can serve as pastors, as well as deacons and elders. But such decisions are subject to review by administrative and judicial bodies.
"What has changed is to give some added authority to the local presbyteries and sessions in making those judgments," said the Rev Clifton Kirkpatrick, chief executive at denominational headquarters. "But it is also crystal clear that the fundamental standards don't change. And, those standards are the same in San Francisco, Los Angeles, in Birmingham or anywhere they're carried out.
"Certainly, there will be differing judgments in different locations and different mission situations as to what is essential for the ordination of people in ministry."
Two attempts by liberals to rescind the requirement of fidelity in marriage and chastity for singles failed in 1998 and 2002. At Tuesday's meeting, numerous efforts by conservatives to defeat or delay the measure failed.
- (LA Times-Washington Post service)