32: APPROVAL OF HOMOSEXUALITY 241Church (U.S.A.),” is up 20 percent from three years ago, according to
retired MLP board member Gene Ruff.^10
In June 2006 the General Assembly of the PCUSA voted 298-221
“to let local bodies that wish to have homosexuals serve as clergy and
lay officers do so, despite a denominational ban on homosexual minis-
ters.”^11 The denomination may fracture over this issue, as Richard
Ostling reports that “Thirteen evangelical caucuses issued a joint state-
ment that the assembly’s actions ‘throw our denomination into crisis..
.. we cannot accept, support, or tolerate it. We will take the steps nec-
essary to be faithful to God.’”^12
In the same national assembly, Ostling reported, the denomination
voted to “receive” a policy paper that allows congregations to use gen-
der-inclusive language for the Trinity in worship services, so that
“Father, Son and Holy Spirit” “could also be known as ‘Mother, Child
and Womb,’ or ‘Rock, Redeemer and Friend.’”^13
3. EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH OF AMERICA
Within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and other denom-
inations, similar groups are growing:
Meanwhile, 280 churches and 21 synods in the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA) participate in a similar program called
“Reconciling in Christ” (RIC). During RIC’s first 18 years, 250 con-
gregations across North America joined, but 30 new churches have
joined this year alone. Other denominations have gay-affirming pro-
grams such as the Rainbow Baptists, the Association of Welcoming(^10) “Go Forth and Sin: A Growing Mainline Movement Seeks to Affirm Homosexuality as
Biblical,” World, August 2, 2003, 20. The same issue of World reports the results of a similar
trend in Australia: “By a large margin, the 267 delegates to the national assembly of the 1.4
million-member Uniting Church of Australia (UCA) July 17 formally approved the ordination
of homosexual men and women on a local-option basis by presbyteries and congregations.
Evangelical clergy and congregations immediately began heading for the exits.... The UCA
was formed by a merger of Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational churches in 1977,
making it the country’s third-largest denomination at the time” (World, August 2, 2003, 23).
(^11) Richard Ostling, “Presbyterian Church Lets Locals Decide on Gay Clergy,” Associated Press
dispatch June 21, 2006, as accessed at http://www.washingtontimes.com, 6-21-06.
(^12) Ibid.
(^13) Richard Ostling, “Presbyterians Revisit the Trinity,” Associated Press dispatch June 20,
2006, as reported at http://www.chicagotribune.com.