Conservative Presbyterians Mulling Split Over Gay Ordination?

Mon, Aug. 22 2011
By Anugrah Kumar
Christian Post Contributor

Three months after allowing the ordination of openly gay clergy, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seems headed for a split as nearly 2,000 conservative Presbyterians are gathering in Minneapolis on Thursday and Friday with creation of a “new Reformed body” as an agenda.

Making preparations for the conference is the Rev. Paul Detterman, executive director of Presbyterians for Renewal, an independent organization based in Louisville, Ky., where the denomination’s headquarters are.

Detterman, administrative consultant for the new Fellowship of Presbyterians, the organizer, recently wrote in a communication to fellow conservatives that initially only a few hundred people were interested in new ways of “being church,” but the change in the ordination standards increased the number of registrations to over 1,900.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which has a membership of over 2 million, became the fourth Protestant denomination in the U.S. to give the ordination rights to openly gay and lesbian clergy by ratifying a constitutional amendment on May 10.

The conference, to be attended by 70 national and regional church officials, is for “people who are deeply troubled and whose integrity is deeply threatened by the move the denomination has made,” Detterman, a longtime pastor and church musician, told The Courier-Journal on the weekend. But, he added, he was urging the group to consider alternatives short of splitting, and that there would be no formal voting or “silver bullet” solutions. the rest