U.S. Presbyterian Church assembly rejects proposal to redefine marriage
Stamp of the General Assembly. With the words "Ardens Sed Virenes" - "Burning but flourishing". (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) PITTSBURGH, July 9, 2012 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) - True marriage won a temporary reprieve in the US Presbyterian Church , as its general assembly rejected a proposal to redefine marriage as “a covenant between two people.” The decision, affirmed by 52% of the church’s General Assembly during an annual meeting in Pittsburgh on Friday, sustains the church’s existing definition of marriage as a “civil contract between a woman and a man” and its ban on performing same-sex weddings . In 2010, the Presbyterian Church censured the openly lesbian Rev. Jane Spahr of San Francisco for officiating sixteen same-sex weddings in violation of that ban. Clergy are, however, permitted to bless same-sex unions without calling them marriages . The assembly also voted to conduct a two-year study on the theology of marriage, and figures on both side