ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 29, 1997 TAG: 9701290027
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
EVEN AS THE CHURCH looks to settle its homosexuality controversy, church scholars say the issue could split mainline Protestant denominations.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is trying to settle a long-running debate over openly gay ministers with a proposal that anyone - homosexual or heterosexual - who has sex outside of marriage and fails to repent is ineligible to be a minister or lay church officer.
A majority of the church's 171 regional divisions, known as presbyterys, must endorse the ``fidelity and chastity amendment'' for it to become part of the church's constitution.
Proponents say the measure is an attempt to set ``biblical standards'' in an era of sexual leniency and immorality. Opponents warn that the measure will lead to an ``inquisition'' aimed at clergy candidates and lay leaders suspected of being ``unchaste.''
But both sides agree that the final national tally may be so close that it not only fails to resolve the issue but also deepens the rift. Some deacons and elders have privately told their ministers that they plan to resign in protest if it passes. Church scholars say the controversy over homosexuality is so fundamental it could eventually lead to a split in the Presbyterian Church or in other mainline Protestant denominations.
Since 1978, the predecessor to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has had a policy that while gays are welcome, any ``self-affirming, practicing homosexual person'' cannot be ordained. About 75 congregations have protested by declaring themselves ``More Light'' churches, pledging to accept openly gay ministers and lay leaders.
The new ``fidelity and chastity'' amendment would write the ban on gay clergy into the church's constitution, or Book of Order, providing stronger legal justification to Presbyterians who have already filed charges against the More Light churches.
The text of the fidelity and chastity amendment does not mention the word ``homosexuality.'' It says:
``Those called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage of a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the Confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers of the Word and Sacrament.''
Several hundred gays and their supporters jumped to their feet in protest, wearing clergy stoles and singing in the aisles, when the church's General Assembly passed the amendment 313 to 236 at its July meeting in Albuquerque.
The Rev. Roberta Hestenes, chairman of the Ordination and Human Sexuality Committee that drafted the amendment, said the panel attempted to ``distinguish between orientation and behavior.'' Under the amendment, celibate homosexuals who repented of their sins could qualify for ordination, Hestenes said.
The amendment's passage has provoked soul-searching debate in many of the nation's presbyterys, which must vote by April.
The church's official tally so far is 13 presbyterys against, 10 in favor.
Nearly 60 Presbyterian leaders, many of them ministers, sent letters to the regional divisions last fall warning that the amendment ``requires the examination of behavior potentially bordering on inquisition,'' and predicting that a witch hunt is inevitable.
The Rev. John Buchanan, the moderator and elected head of the denomination, has been traveling around the country speaking about the importance of church unity and trying to squelch some of the more alarmist scenarios.
``Are we going to go parish by parish and root out people who are not willing to repent of behavior that this amendment calls sinful? I think not,'' Buchanan said in an interview. Buchanan supported a rival amendment last summer that would have allowed congregations and presbyterys to make their own decisions about ordination of gays. That approach was endorsed in a minority report but defeated by the General Assembly, 323 to 226.
The Presbyterian Church, like other mainline Protestant denominations, has been losing members steadily since the 1950s, a period of record high membership. By its own count, the church has lost 30,000 members each year for the last decade, and now has about 2.7 million members.
Some Presbyterian conservatives blame the losses on indecision over homosexual ordination. But Jerry Van Marter, director of the church's news service, says it is simply that older members are dying, while the church is failing to attract younger adherents.
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