淡蓝网3月19日讯：经过长达十年的辩论，美国基督教长老会决定修改教会宪章，正式承认同性婚姻。

该教会最高立法机构在去年6月已经通过相关议案，但仍需171个教区的领导机构批准。17日公布的投票结果显示，多数教区赞成将宪章中的婚姻定义从“一男一女之间”修改为“两人之间，传统为一男一女”。

这一改变将于今年6月21日正式生效，之后美国长老会的神职人员可以在自愿的前提下，为同性婚姻合法地区的同性伴侣主持婚礼。另外，曾因主持同性婚礼被教会处分的神职人员，其处罚记录将被撤销。

支持婚姻平等的牧师布莱恩·艾利森(Brian Ellison)对上述决定表示欢迎，同时呼吁教会成员求同存异、保持团结。

美国长老会拥有180多万信众，是北美地区最大的长老教会。

Leaders of Presbyterian Church USA congregations voted to change the definition of marriage from the union of “a man and a woman” to “two people.”

Come June 21, the new policy allowing the church to marry homosexuals will take effect, the Blaze reported.

The church’s 171 bodies, known as presbyteries, voted on the constitutional change Tuesday, months after the General Assembly recommended it, the New York Times reported.

“Finally, the church in its constitutional documents fully recognizes that the love of gays and lesbian couples is worth celebrating in the faith community,” said Rev. Brian Ellison, executive director of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, to the New York Times. “There is still disagreement and I don’t mean to minimize that, but I think we are learning that we can disagree and still be [in] church together.”

The Presbyterian Church USA is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, and touts about 1.8 million members, making it the largest of the Presbyterian denominations in the nation. Still, a segment of the church’s membership – mostly in the more conservative camps – cut ties in 2011 after the governing body ratified a decision to let gays and lesbians serve as ordained pastors, elders and deacons.

The New York Times reported the membership drop of the conservative base in 2011 likely cleared the way for the new definition of marriage to pass church muster.

But not all remaining church members are happy about the change.

Political correctness would banish this book, which bluntly explores the mainstreaming of homosexuality. Get “A Queer Thing Happened to America.”

Paul Detterman, national director of The Fellowship Community, a body of conservatives that maintained membership in the church post-2011, said in the New York Times: “Our objection to the passage of the marriage amendment is in no way, shape or form anti-gay. It is in no way intended as anything but concern that the church is capitulating to the culture and is misrepresenting the message of Scripture.”

Detterman also said that it’s likely “another wave, a sizable wave, of conservative folks” will now abandon the church.

He also said he and his fellow conservative group members wouldn’t be among the wave of those exiting.

“This conversation is dreadfully important to be part of,” he said, the newspaper reported.

As for ripple effects in other church denominations, Alan Wisdom, a Presbyterian who serves as the interim editor of Theology Matters, said not to worry.

“I don’t see any further large mainline denominations making the same move,” he said, the New York Times reported.

So far, the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Quakers and the Unitarian Universalist Association of Churches allow clergy to perform gay marriages.