Resignation of Pastor Accepted Amid Questions : Religion: The Rev. Donn D. Moomaw asks Bel-Air parishioners to forgive him for unacceptable behavior with members. He offers no specifics.

Members of Bel Air Presbyterian Church voted Sunday to accept the resignation of the Rev. Donn D. Moomaw after his disclosure that he had engaged in unacceptable behavior with some members of the congregation.

The voice vote came after the former UCLA all-American lineman and pastor to former President Ronald Reagan appeared before his 2,400-member congregation and asked members to forgive him for unspecified wrongs and to dissolve their pastoral relationship of almost 29 years.

Moomaw’s decision to submit his resignation--in which he admitted only that he had “stepped over the line of acceptable behavior with some members of the congregation”--caught many of the church’s members by surprise.

He received a standing ovation Sunday as he entered the new multimillion-dollar sanctuary on Mulholland Drive with a spectacular view of the San Fernando Valley, a building project he had overseen.

As his wife, Carol, stood by his side, Moomaw--his voice choking at times with emotion--said: “I have failed. . . . I ask for your forgiveness.” He called it “a very, very painful moment for Carol and me.”

“We’ll never ever be anything but family,” Moomaw said. “I’m grateful for what you have added to my life. I’m grateful for the memories. But now I’m asking you--if you really do believe in me and my life and if you really do love me--you will concur with the motion today to accept my resignation. It’s not a vote against me. It’s a vote for me.”

In offering his resignation this month, Moomaw said he wanted to devote his time to “healing.”

Moomaw and other church leaders have declined to state what behavior prompted his resignation. “Along the way, I have stepped over the line of acceptable behavior with some members of the congregation,” he said in his letter of resignation, adding that he tried on his own to face unspecified childhood issues and had been involved in years of denial and “faulty coping techniques.”

He offered no new insight in his remarks Sunday.

Several members at the meeting wondered aloud what Moomaw’s transgressions were. One man asked what it was that he was being asked to forgive. A woman said that without information, she felt she and others were being treated like children.

Because there have been few specifics, church members said that rumors were rampant, all of them seemingly credible and all contradictory.

But most members said they did not need to know the specifics. They said that forgiveness and grace--something they said that Moomaw had repeatedly extended to them--was a cornerstone of Christian faith and practice.

Some called for giving Moomaw a leave of absence to sort out his problems, rather than accept his resignation. In the end, however, a solid majority--based on a voice vote--approved the motion to dissolve the pastoral relationship.

The business meeting was held after the church’s 11 a.m. worship service, which was attended by two of its most prominent members, Reagan and his wife, Nancy. The Reagans did not remain for the meeting and left without comment after the service.

The Presbytery of the Pacific, the regional governing body of the church, must concur with the decision. It is scheduled to meet next month.