Presbyterians to Get 2 Proposals for Split
The assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is facing two proposals for a formal split in the 3.6-million-member denomination, according to the Presbyterian News Service.
The denomination’s General Assembly is scheduled to meet in Long Beach in June.
One proposal asks the assembly to declare that the church has “two mutually exclusive theologies” on the Bible, causing an “irreconcilable impasse,” especially on whether to ordain homosexuals.
The second would authorize a task force to rewrite church law and allow liberal congregations that disagree with the existing ban on gay clergy to leave the denomination and keep their buildings. Normally, property reverts to denominational ownership when a congregation quits or disbands.
The bills were prepared by the Rev. Jeff Arnold of Butler, Pa., along with a local evangelical caucus, and approved for national consideration by a unit covering the region north of Pittsburgh.
“We’re not trying to create division,” Arnold told Presbyterian News Service. “The division already exists, and nobody has found a way to reconcile the differences.”
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