re homosexuality issues in christiani ofm writes this is an issue throughout the presbyterian church on the other side one of the major churches in cincinnati has been ordaining homosexual elders and has ignored presbytery instructions not to do so and the church in rochester where the judicial commission said they couldn t install a homosexual pastor has made her an evangelist these situations as well as the one you describe do not appear to be stable this will certainly be a major topic for the general assembly next month if the church can t come up with a solution that will let people live with each other i think we re end up with a split clearly neither side wants that but i think we ll get pushed into it by actions of both sides clh the moderator of the general assembly the rev john fife visited our church about a week ago just days after rev spahr it s been a busy week for our small church he was asked specifically about the issue of homosexuality and what he thinks will happen at the ga meeting next month evidently there are known resolutions pending that range the gamut from outlawing homosexuality altogether to legalizing it completely he will readily admit that this is probabaly the most difficult issue that the church has had to deal with since the presbyterian church split in two over the issue of slavery more than years ago without question the issue may split the church again after we ve been reunited for all of a dozen years or so he is hopeful that it will not and is pushing the same attitude that helped the church deal with the abortion issue last year as a solution he is hoping to pass a resolution that more or less states that we the members of the church agree to disagree on the issue admitting that both sides have honestly studied the scriptures and had the spirit lead them to different conclusions it worked last year when the abortion issue threatened to do more or less the same thing and he is hopeful that the ga can foster a loving and caring attitude about people who disagree with their own view cliff slaughterbeck dept of physics fm it s time for the sermon on the university of washington grand torino seattle wa it s going to be hard to agree to disagree if we allow disagreement then some presbyteries and churches are going to ordain people that others will not recognize that s a difficult situation in a connectional church i could live with it but i think a lot of people would not be willing to note that the church was not willing to live with this kind of compromise with ordination of women the one thing that will definitely prevent a person from becoming a presbyterian minister is if they indicate that they don t accept ordination of women the argument is that we can t have half the church not accepting the leaders of the other half maybe people will decide to live with it in this case when they didn t in the other but i wonder i admit that my own presbytery submitted an overture to the ga that would have exactly this effect and we considered the ambiguity better than the current situation clh
