Presbyterians give final approval to same-sex marriage

[Borgholio]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... /24935183/

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has approved a new definition of marriage that includes gay marriage.

The denomination is now the largest Protestant group to recognize same-sex marriage as Christian and allow same-sex weddings churchwide.

The new definition was endorsed last year by the denomination's top legislative body as an amendment to the church constitution. The change required approval from the majority of regional bodies or presbyteries. The Covenant Network of Presbyterians says the critical vote came Tuesday from the Palisades Presbytery in New Jersey.

The denomination has about 1.8 million members and 10,000 congregations nationwide.

The church earlier eliminated barriers for ordaining gays, and last year, allowed ministers to preside at gay weddings with congregational approval in states where the unions are legal.

The new definition takes effect June 21.

I grew up Presbyterian and they've always been some of the more liberal Christian groups (at least as far as I remember). So it makes sense they would be one of the first to do this. This is great news!

[Elheru Aran]

My wife and I used to go to a PCUSA congregation (it folded shortly afterwards due to reasons), and they were quite anti-gay marriage. This is interesting, but the Presbyterians are a fairly hands-off denomination, and don't really push their congregations to toe the line. So don't be surprised if most of the more conservative churches still don't tolerate it.

[Ahriman238]

Internet rage immediately follows.

[hongi]

Why internet rage?

[Elheru Aran]

I actually haven't seen much rage, personally. The PCUSA aren't *that* big of a denomination. Sure, close to 2 million... but the Baptists have something like, what, 40 million? Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is a larger segment of the Presbyterian population and they haven't endorsed it.

Bear in mind that so far only the smaller denominations-- and only some of those-- have actually endorsed gay marriage. The Episcopalians, Lutherans, and now the PCUSA. Any other deviations from the norm are by individual churches.

So bottom line is-- this is nice but it isn't going to change much.

[Ultonius]

It's funny: back in 2010, when I was still a lurker, the PCUSA General Assembly was preparing to vote whether or not to approve a report, drawn up by a special church committee, that recommended altering the definition of marriage in the church constitution from 'a man and a woman' to 'two people', as well as a dissenting minority report drawn up by 3 of the 13 committee members that recommended keeping the existing definition. SDN had this thread on it, but as threads here sometimes do, it moved away from the original topic, so no-one seemed to notice when the General Assembly approved both reports, but did not change its definition of marriage.

I actually haven't seen much rage, personally. The PCUSA aren't *that* big of a denomination. Sure, close to 2 million... but the Baptists have something like, what, 40 million? Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is a larger segment of the Presbyterian population and they haven't endorsed it.

Bear in mind that so far only the smaller denominations-- and only some of those-- have actually endorsed gay marriage. The Episcopalians, Lutherans, and now the PCUSA. Any other deviations from the norm are by individual churches.

So bottom line is-- this is nice but it isn't going to change much.

Just a few days ago, the Atlantic had this article on how the Allegheny Conference of the Mennonite Church USA is dealing with issues such as gay marriage and gay people as leaders and delegates in the church. Of course, MCUSA is even smaller than the PCUSA, with fewer than 100,000 members in 2013.