Presbyterians Endorse Celibacy for Single Ministers

After years of contentious debate, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has voted to require that all unmarried ministers, deacons and elders be sexually celibate.

The move was intended to ban ordination of homosexuals, but has rattled thousands of single, sexually active heterosexual church officers who now face a serious dilemma: repent, resign, or lie and face possible church prosecution.

Many conservative Presbyterians are ebullient, believing that passage of the “Fidelity and Chastity Amendment” will put an end to more than two decades of bitter dissension over homosexuality. But some pastors and elders in the Washington, D.C., region plan to circulate nationally a “Covenant of Dissent” saying they will refuse to abide by the measure.

The tug-of-war among the nation’s 2.7 million Presbyterians is one example of the battles over homosexuality being fought in most mainline Protestant denominations. The Presbyterian Church’s conservative-fundamentalist flank, which fought and lost the battle over ordaining women clergy decades ago, has vowed to stand firm against ordaining unrepentant homosexuals.

“I’m real happy about the amendment’s passing,” said the Rev. Jack Haberer, pastor of Clear Lake Presbyterian Church in Houston and coordinator of a coalition that supported the amendment. “From where I sit, it means that the church has reaffirmed the Scriptures, the Bible, as the center of our faith and practice.”

“This is a very sad and tragic moment in our church’s history,” said the Rev. Laurene Lafontaine, a Colorado minister and leader of Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns. “We’re very disappointed at the passage of the amendment, which effectively imposes a purity code on everyone in the denomination and is going to be very problematic to enforce.”

A majority of the church’s 172 divisions, known as presbyterys, had to endorse the amendment for it to become part of the church’s constitution. This week, the amendment received the crucial 87th vote. The margins in many presbyterys were close; in several it passed by only one or two votes. The measure will officially become church law this summer.

The amendment’s text says: “Those called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture. . . . 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.”

The amendment’s last line denies church office to “persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the Confessions call sin.” Opponents of the new measure fear arbitrary enforcement because these sins, listed in the denomination’s creed, or Book of Confessions, include usury, idolatry and the baptizing of babies by women.