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As The Washington Post noted yesterday, it's a heavy news day for those interested in how Christian denominations are dealing with homosexual acts. It's just one of those days.

1. North Carolina Baptists to oust gay-friendly congregations
The strongest stance on homosexual sex comes today from the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, which changed its membership guidelines. It "previously only required its members to support the convention through cooperation and financial contributions," the Associated Press notes. "Now any churches that 'knowingly act to affirm, approve, endorse, promote, support or bless homosexual behavior' will be barred from membership."

"This action does not mean that you should avoid ministry to the homosexual community," convention executive director Milton Hollifield Jr. told the AP. "Even though we believe that homosexuality is wrong, we still love and engage those in this lifestyle."

2. U.S. Catholic bishops urge pastoral care
Loving and engaging is also the theme of the new document from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, "Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Orientation: Guidelines for Pastoral Care." "None of the teaching is new, but there is an attempt to explain it in more clear, positive language than some documents of the past," notes the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. While several reports emphasize the document's call for those with such inclinations to live chastely, the document itself emphasizes the church's necessary role in befriending, supporting, and aiding persons with a homosexual inclination. The document is quite good, and even the sections on the sacraments can serve Protestant churches well, as they seek to encourage their congregations to take positive actions on chastity and sexual ethics.

3. PCUSA dismisses case against pastor who officiated at lesbian marriage
Janet Edwards, a Pittsburgh Presbyterian minister, does not encourage those in her church with homosexual inclinations to live chastely. She encourages them to marry others with the same inclination, and she married one lesbian couple in a syncretistic Buddhist-Christian ceremony. Presbyterian church courts, she noted, have only ruled that clergy "should not" perform same-sex marriages, and she claims this is unclear language that does not mean officiating at such ceremonies is banned. The PCUSA's Permanent Judicial Commission won't be making the ban any clearer—it dismissed all charges against Edwards yesterday, because the charges against Edwards were filed four days after the one-year statute of limitations expired. "This constitutes neither a vindication of the accused, nor any position on the charges," vice moderator Kears Pollock told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Edwards's lawyer, at least, doesn't quite see it that way: "I am pleased with the decision because it creates yet another precedent in which a minister of the Presbyterian Church has not been sanctioned for officiating at the marriage ceremony of a same-sex couple," he told the Presbyterian News Service.

In related news, more churches are leaving the PCUSA.

4. ECUSA exodus
There's important news from Virginia, Texas, and California for those interested in the breakup of the Episcopal Church and the ensuing fights over leadership and property. But these days, you have to wonder if it's still news that major congregations are leaving the denomination and that diocesan leaders are fighting over such matters. If you're really interested in all the details, make sure you're reading TitusOneNine, CANN, and Midwest Conservative Journal.

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November (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50