Religion News Service.The approved language will now go before local church bodies, known as “presbyteries,” two-thirds of which must approve the overture before a second up-or-down vote is held at next year’s meeting, scheduled to take place in Birmingham, Alabama.
If approved, the language would be placed in the “Book of Church Order,” which governs the practices of Presbyterian Church in America congregations, according to The Washington Times.The denomination estimated in 2018 that it had about 385,000 members in 1,927 congregations across the United States.
Under the language in the overture, people who identify as gay and make that identity central to their lives are barred from becoming clergy, a step beyond the denomination’s.