Press Release                              :: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JUNE 20, 2006

Presbyterian Church (USA) votes to open the door to ordination
for some lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members

Birmingham, AL, June 20, 2006—After hours of heated debate, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved a measure that will allow some lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) members to argue for their own ordination based on merit, not on sexuality. That All May Freely Serve (TAMFS) regards this action as less than full justice. Undeterred in the struggle to build a truly inclusive church, TAMFS is committed to working with qualified LGBT Presbyterians who are seeking to serve the church so that their sacred calls are heard.

By a vote of 298 to 221, the Assembly today approved the work of the Peace, Unity and Purity Task Force, appointed four years ago to clarify theological issues of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Their recommendations provide guidance to local church governing bodies who authorize ordination of ministers and church officers. The Assembly failed to remove the discriminatory provision within the church constitution that refuses ordination to anyone who is living outside “fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman or in chastity in singleness.” Instead, the approval of the report provides the chance for individual LGBT candidates for ordination to petition the local governing body to regard their sexual orientation and/or marital status as “non-essential” to faith and practice, opening the door to a review of qualifications based on merit.

“In taking this action, some of our folks may now be able to serve in this denomination as they have longed to do. We take hope that this action will be a step on the road to the full inclusion of all people, including LGBT people,” said the Rev. Jane Adams Spahr, Minister Director of That All May Freely Serve. “Given the terms of this General Assembly action, we will work alongside all who seek to serve this church so that no LGBT person called by God is denied by the church.”

 Today, TAMFS calls for a groundswell effort to strike oppressive language from the constitution in the 2008 General Assembly in San Jose, California. “We will put all our energy into building the momentum of the whole church so that 2008 will be the year when all may freely serve,” said the Rev. Don Stroud, Minister of Outreach and Reconciliation for the TAMFS Baltimore region.

According to the Rev. Ray Bagnuolo, That All May Freely Serve board member who was ordained to ministry as an out gay man in November 2005, “God has given us the burning call to challenge the denomination to give up the pretense of hoarding God’s love. We do not do this for ourselves but for the soul of the Presbyterian Church.”

# # # # #