PCUSA vote opens up door to the ordination of gay clergy

In a dramatic 205-56 vote, openly gay people can now be ordained in the Presbyterian Church USA, after a regional decision on May 10. With the support of the Twin Cities region of the denomination, Amendment 10A won the approval of 87 of PCUSA's 173 presbyteries, which amounts to a simple majority.

Previously, in 1997, PCUSA adopted a statute that mandated all Presbyterian clergy "to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman" or to "observe chastity in singleness."

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