Gay acceptance and gay ordination broached during recent PCUSA visit to PCT

From "Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>
Date Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:33:05 +0800

3097 Edition

July 4-10, 2011

General Assembly News

Gay acceptance and gay ordination broached during recent PCUSA visit to PCT 

Reported by Lin Yi-ying

Written by Lydia Ma

PCUSA General Assembly Staff Judy Semaria, Evangelism Staff Nancy Cavalcante, 
and Asia Staff David Hudson visited PCT General Assembly from June 22 to 25, 
2011. PCT officials were overjoyed at their visit glad for this opportunity for 
both churches to review their joint mission projects.

One of the topics of discussion that arose during the visit was PCUSA’s recent 
vote that would allow openly gay men or women in a same-sex relationship to be 
eligible for ordination. The 3 secretaries recounted how partner churches in 
Japan and South Korea had expressed their disappointment, unease, and 
opposition with regards to this vote. They candidly admitted that PCUSA General 
Assembly was treading on uncharted waters and expressed anxiety over possible 
backlash from the ecumenical community as well as local churches.

PCT Ecumenical Relations Secretary Hu Hong-chih remarked that based on his own 
observations, most churches in the world have come to terms with this issue 
after a long period of discussion and at times fierce debate. The matter is in 
the end handed to the General Assembly for a final decision.  

Hu conceded that one of these days PCT will likely need to face this issue as 
well and decide as a church what it’ll do. But for the time being, most PCT 
pastors aren’t yet ready to accept gay ordination. The issue’s complexity is 
further intensified if neither side is willing to concede or compromise. His 
main worry was that if the matter was broached before either side was ready, it 
could lead to deadlock or disastrous discussion.

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