United Church of Christ Reaffirms Policy Admitting Gays to Ministry

The United Church of Christ, whose lineage goes back to the early Pilgrims and colonial Puritans, reaffirmed its path-breaking policy of admitting homosexuals to the ministry at the denomination’s biennial synod concluded last week.

Delegates rejected proposals that would have reversed the church’s past stand, declaring that a ministerial candidate’s sexual orientation by itself was not grounds for denying ordination.

Representatives of the liberal 1.6-million-member denomination also overwhelmingly passed a resolution affirming that seriously ill persons have a right to take their own lives, and their families have a right to withhold artificial life-support systems or terminate the patient’s life.