Opponents of the ban intend to seek its repeal when the nation's sixth-largest Protestant denomination holds its national assembly beginning Saturday in Louisville. This city is also the headquarters of the church, which has as many as 3.6 million members. We would like ordaining bodies to be given the right to ordain people as individuals, not as members of categories.
Conservatives are prepared to defend the ban.
The Presbyterians are among several mainline Protestant denominations, notably the Episcopal Church and United Methodist Church, that have struggled with the issue of gay clergy and same-sex unions in recent years. Other Protestant groups could face debates and protests at national meetings this summer. Stuart and Andrews each said the struggle in the Presbyterian churches could go either way. Repeal would require not only passage at the Louisville assembly but also and probably harder to achieve ratification by a majority of the church's 173 presbyteries, or regional legislatures. The sexual-conduct standard was inserted into the church's constitution in 1997.