Presbyterian Assembly Votes to End the Ban on Gay Clergy

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —  The chief policy-making body of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted Friday to recommend lifting a ban on ordaining homosexual clergy.

The measure to remove the ban from the church’s Book of Order, or constitution, was approved 317-208 by the General Assembly of the nation’s sixth-largest Protestant denomination.

The measure still must be ratified by a majority of the church’s 173 presbyteries, or regional legislatures, over the next year.

Jerry Andrews, a minister from suburban Chicago who supports the ban, said the recommendation was not a surprise. He said the General Assembly traditionally is more liberal than the presbyteries.

The standard for ordination requires ministers, deacons and elders to “live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.”