Resolution is watered down

Gay rights win church group's support

By Darrell Holland

Religion Editor

TIFFIN The civil rights of homosexuals should be protected, the Ohio Conference of the United Church of Christ voted here yesterday.

But conference members deleted a paragraph from a resolution that would have allowed avowed homosexuals to become members of the church and ministers, a position opposed by many members.

The deleted paragraph was re-

placed by one supporting a study of the moral and theological implications of human sexuality being done by the national United Church of Christ.

The conference reported it did not intend to judge "the morality or immorality of homosexual lifestyles."

In a heated debate, the 643 delegates, representing 190,000 members of 550 churches, also rejected a resolution that said "homosexual acts and life-styles are not appropriate to the Christian.'

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The conference was more favorable to homosexuals than recent national business meetings of the United Methodist Church and the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., both of which retain the view that homosexuality is a sin. 1

The conference also voted:

• To provide care for children while their parents are doing church work, though no money was approved. It was interpreted as a women's rights issue.

• To ask church members to

modify their eating habits because of world hunger.

It rejected a resolution to ask that the U.S. Constitution be amended so that voluntary prayer would not be prohibited in public schools or at public meetings.

Among new officers elected was the Rev. Rudy H. Thomas of Dover Congregational Church, Westlake, as moderator, the highest honorary position in the conference.