Gay clergy rock Presbyterians

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SAN DIEGO, Calif. (AP) United Presbyterians elected as their new presiding officer here this week a clergyman who has been neutral on an issue shaking the church whether it should approve ordination of acknowledged practicing homosexuals.

Delegates to the church's 190th General Assembly elected the Rev. William P. Lytle of San Antonio, Tex., as moderator, giving him 396 of the 643 votes on a third ballot.

One of six defeated candidates for the moderator's post was the Rev. Alexander C. Meakin, pastor of Parma-South Presbyterian Church, 6149 Pearl Rd., Parma Heights.

In a statement before his election, Lytle acknowledged that feelings were running high over the homosexual issue in the 2.6-million-member denomination.

"Fears have surfaced along with anger," he said. "We have witnessed a good deal of emotion

whatever decisions are arrived at by the General Assembly, there will be some hurting and hence the need for healing afterwards."

His closest challengers, the Rev. James G. Emerson Jr. of Denver and the Rev. Vahe H.

Simonian of Pasadena, Calif., had both opposed ordaining homosexuals.

The assembly is expected to decide Monday on the recommendations of a task force that spent two years studying the issue. If those recommendations are approved, the denomination would be the first in Christian history to condone officially the ordination of self-affirmed, active

homosexuals.

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"It's an ultimate issue for an ecclesiastical body," the church's chief administrative officer, William P. Thompson, told a news conference. "I regret that it has placed all other issues in eclipse. People are concerned."

One of two women candidates for moderator, May Denham of Albuquerque, N.M., had suggested that the assembly shelve the homosexual question for further study, saying action on it threatened the "disaster of disunity."

Lytle, 54, has led San Antonio's Madison Square United Presbyterian Church since 1973. Before then he was a missionary among Indian and ranching communities in New Mexico for 15 years.