Source: San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Louisville Courier Journal
The proper role of gay and lesbian members and clergy in the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been a subject of contentious debate among church leaders every other year for the past three decades when they've met for their biennial rule-making body, the General Assembly.
They've debated endlessly, but they just can't make up their mind.
And while leaders of the church have debated, membership in the denomination has been dropping. The Louisville-based denomination suffered its worst annual membership decline in decades last year, officials announced yesterday.
The liberal-leaning denomination allows the blessing of same-sex unions, but defines homosexual acts as sinful and won't officially ordain partnered lesbian or gay candidates for priesthood. They're steadfast in opposition to same-sex marriage -- but have vindicated priests who presided over them, saying church-approved marriages can't exist no matter what priests do or say.
In 2000, the church's court ruled that ministers can officiate at same-sex unions as long as the ceremonies are not called marriages. Some churches have also ordained gay and lesbian leaders without facing sanctions, San Jose Mercury News reports.
It is, as San Francisco Chronicle reports, an often-contradictory set of beliefs that has believers on both sides unsatisfied.
Facing those contradictions, the nation's largest Presbyterian denomination opened its biennial meeting in San Jose on Saturday. Leaders of the denomination will once again seek to mend its member churches' deep divisions over whether gays and lesbians should be ordained and same-sex marriages recognized, and other contentious issues.
More than 3,000 people from the United States and other countries are expected to attend the deliberations.
The General Assembly is meeting for the first time since 2006, when it took votes that prompted dozens of congregations to leave the denomination, Louisville Courier Journal reports.
Those included a vote to receive, but not endorse, a paper promoting the use of unconventional language about the Trinity, and a vote appearing to give regional governing bodies more flexibility in enforcing the denomination's ban on ordaining non-celibate gays and lesbians.
Like many predominantly white Protestant denominations -- such as the nation's largest Lutheran, Episcopal and Methodist bodies -- the Presbyterians have been losing members since the mid-1960s, the high-water mark of organized religion in America.
As with other mainline Protestant denominations, losses are accelerating for the Presbyterian Church (USA) in part because of the departure of some congregations to a more conservative Presbyterian denomination, while the main church refuses to adopt policies that are attractive to its theologically liberal members.
Meeting in a state that has legalized same-sex marriage is putting unique tension on the 2.2 million-member denomination. Those who want to extend greater rights to gays and lesbians are hoping that this week's gathering in San Jose will set the stage for change.
Reflecting on the church's reluctance to fully accept the unions of its gay and lesbian members, Rev. W. Rob Martin III, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto, told San Francisco Chronicle, "Sadly enough, I think within my own denomination, the state has been a much more powerful witness than the church has,"
Martin's church has welcomed and blessed same-sex couples for nearly 20 years. "It's my fervent hope that with movement in civil society my denomination will catch up with that."
More than 20 proposals on the subject that will be considered at this week's meeting. They could move the church toward or away from the direction that Martin hopes it will take.
Reflecting the tenor of the proposals, "about half are for it, and half against it," said the Rev. Bob Bowles, an Aptos minister who chairs the Presbytery of San Jose committee that is hosting the meeting.
The issue was highlighted Friday night when the Rev. Jane Spahr of San Rafael, a retired Presbyterian minister who was was acquitted in April by a church court for blessing same-sex ceremonies, presided over the wedding of a Marin County lesbian couple at the county's Civic Center in an open challenge to church leaders who will vote on the proposals.
The couple and Spahr, their pastor, told the Associated Press that they hoped the wedding would send a message to church leaders.
Whatever decisions are agreed to at this week's meeting, they're likely to affect fewer people than ever before because the denomination lost 57,572 members in 2007 and has 2,209,546 active and confirmed members, a drop of 2.5 percent compared to 2006.
It's the denomination's largest membership loss in terms of numbers since 1981 and the steepest percentage loss since 1974, when it fell 2.7 percent.
Louisville Courier Journal reports that observers attribute the losses to the controversies over homosexuality and theology, but also to social factors such as a low birth rate, an aging white population, and the declining popularity of organizations of any sort.
The median age for Presbyterians is 58, according to the most recently available data from 2005 -- considerably older than the national median of 35, even considering that the youngest Presbyterians are in their early teens, when they can be confirmed, the Courier Journal reports.
Religious groups that are expanding, such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Assemblies of God, and Jehovah's Witnesses, have attributed much of their growth to immigration and outreach to minority groups.
The Presbyterian statistics for last year were preceded by two consecutive years of 2 percent losses, which were themselves the highest losses since its northern and southern branches merged in the 1980s, the Courier Journal reports.
Full article: Presbyterians argue roles of gays, lesbians | San Francisco Chronicle
Presbyterians in SJ to tackle tough issues | San Jose Mercury News
Presbyterian membership loss worst in decades | Louisville Courier-Journal