NATIONAL ASSEMBLY Panel pushes for gay Presbyterian clergy

The full assembly will vote later this week.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Martha Juillerat served as pastor of her small Presbyterian church in rural Minnesota for 15 years until she came out as a lesbian and was forced to step down.
She urged fellow Presbyterians who gathered Monday at the church's national legislative assembly to lift the ban on ordaining gays and lesbians as ministers, elders and deacons in the church.
"Sometimes it is more than I can bear that this church has decided to discriminate against an entire class of people," Juillerat urged a committee considering a proposal to eliminate the ban. "I know that this church can do better."
The committee was scheduled to make a recommendation on the matter today. The full assembly was expected to vote on that later this week.
Liberals in the 2.4 million-member church have pushed for years to allow ordination of gays and lesbians. The issue promises to be the most divisive of the weeklong Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) legislative assembly.
About 8,000 Presbyterians are taking part in the assembly at Richmond's Convention Center.
Making a point
During the open hearing Monday, gays and lesbians said the Presbyterians' stance on homosexuality is driving young people away at a time when the church is struggling to retain its numbers.
Heather Reichgott, a student at the San Francisco Theological Seminary, said she cannot be ordained after she graduates because she is planning to marry her high school sweetheart, who is a woman. The ban on gay clergy leaves her uncertain about her place in the church.
"I want nothing more than to serve [the Lord] for the rest of my life, but the policy of this denomination says that I cannot because of the gender of my partner," she said.
Conservative stance
Conservatives say the Scriptures denounce homosexuality, and many are seeking new church leadership to clamp down on the ordination ban, which is sometimes loosely enforced.
"God, the creator, planned marriage for a man and a woman," said the Rev. Kristine Hileman, moderator of the Donegal, Pa., presbytery. "We as God's people need to follow Jesus' teaching."