PCUSA youth back gay ministry goals

Christian Century, Sept 6, 2003

Young members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), like their cohorts in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, want their church to talk about sex--just not all the time.

More than 500 high school students, meeting in Louisville July 28-August 3 for the Presbyterian Youth Connection Assembly, defeated a resolution that called on the larger church to "postpone the issue of the ordination of homosexuals." The yonth also voted to "affirm the call of homosexuals, bisexuals and transgendered persons to all areas of ministry." The PCUSA does not allow noncelibate gays and lesbians to serve as church officers.

Youth delegates said they do not want the church to become so focused on sexuality that it neglects other important issues. The church's General Assembly voted in May to defer all questions on gay, ordination to a task force on theological diversity. "While the committee agrees that this issue should not take center stage, we feel it should stay on the table, as painful as it may be," said A. J. Piccone of the Hudson River Presbytery in New York, according to Presbyterian News Service. "We seek to discern God's will throughout continued discussion."

In July the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's youth organization voted overwhelmingly to welcome members of all sexual orientations and to be listed as a "Reconciling in Christ" organization that is gay-friendly. --RNS