November 4, 1999
Web posted at: 3:12 p.m. EDT (1912 GMT)

In this story: A marriage-like commitment Presbyterians divided ... ... and so are other denominations RELATED STORIES, SITES

NEWARK, New Jersey (CNN) -- A dispute within the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States --- the same centuries-old clash between Christian tradition and homosexuality that has divided other churches --- heads to trial Thursday before a religious court.

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At issue is whether clergy should be barred by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and possibly punished, for performing marriage-like ceremonies that celebrate the union of gay partners.

Jeff Halvorsen and George Cisneros exchanged vows in January at South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Their commitment was blessed by the Rev. Susan DeGeorge, one of several Presbyterian clergy who have conducted several such ceremonies.

But what Halvorsen and Cisneros celebrated as a "holy union" may be in violation of Presbyterian church policy.

In 1995, the church's national organization rejected a proposed amendment prohibiting its clergy from participating in same-sex unions. The church has 3.7 million members nationally.

The church's Synod of the Northeast, which oversees the presbyteries in New York, New Jersey and New England, must decide if DeGeorge and other Presbyterian clergy can continue to perform commitment ceremonies if they're not called marriages.

Cisneros says he and his partner wanted a ceremony to confirm the deep level of their commitment to one another 84K/08 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

"We didn't use that term during the service and the ministers did not use that term," Halvorsen told CNN.

The synod, a group of church leaders and clergy members, gathered in Newark Thursday. They met to form a denominational judicial court in an appeal brought after DeGeorge and her supporters won the first round of the dispute.

A few weeks after the Halvorsen-Cisneros ceremony, the Hudson River Presbytery, a body of clergy members and church elders that oversees 95 churches in New York's lower Hudson Valley, voted overwhelmingly to give ministers the freedom to decide whether to unite couples of the same sex.

That decision divided the church district.

"By playing a semantic game with the language, you can continue to do what the church says is in violation of (church code)," says Julius Poppinga, a Presbyterian elder opposed to same-sex commitment ceremonies.

Poppinga hopes that churches confronting the issue will have "the inner resiliency to stand by what has been their conviction from time immemorial."

Poppinga hopes the church will stand by its policy barring same-sex unions

Rev. Cliff Frasier, a gay Presbyterian minister in Manhattan, argues the other side.

"Holy union is a particularly sanctified way of modeling God's image in our lives. For the church to withdraw its affirmation of that," he told CNN, "is to abandon and neglect many of God's children."

If the Synod of the Northeast finds the Hudson Valley churches were wrong to bless same-sex unions, DeGeorge and the other ministers there could be disciplined, or even fired.

Rev. Marc Benton -- the pastor who first asked the Hudson River Presbytery to investigate DeGeorge's actions and brought Thursday's challenge -- has said that if he loses again, he would take his appeal to national Presbyterian court.

Increasing numbers of gays and lesbians want greater roles in their churches -- in some cases as clergy members. But the national debate on religion and homosexuality is not unique to Presbyterians. Some recent examples:

• A gay New Jersey priest whose ordination divided the Episcopal church left the parish where he ministered for six years, blaming the controversy that surrounded him. Rev. Barry Stopfel said the furor strained his relationship with his partner, and preached his last sermon at St. George's Church in Maplewood in September.

• A Methodist minister in Chicago, suspended for one year for performing same-sex marriages, said he would continue to officiate at the unions in defiance of church law. The Rev. Gregory Dell's one-year suspension, which began in July, could be lifted early if he agrees to comply with the church law banning same-sex ceremonies, or if the law is changed.

Frasier says the withdrawal of support for gay commitment ceremonies will mean the church is abandoning "many of God's children"

• A regional judicial commission of the Presbyterian Church ruled in October against upholding the ordination of homosexuals by two Presbyterian churches in New England.

The commission ordered the Presbytery of Northern New England to require that Christ Church Presbyterian Church of Burlington, Vermont, comply with the church constitution.

The body also required the First Presbyterian Church in Stamford, Connecticut, to reexamine an openly gay elder's suitability for service.

Whatever the outcome of the religious trial beginning Thursday in Newark, Halvorsen and Cisneros say it doesn't change their commitment to each other.

"Jeff and I are already married," Cisneros told CNN. "As far as I'm concerned, we've sealed our love in God's eyes. That's not going to change."

Reporter Deborah Feyerick and The Associated Press contributed to this report, written by Jim Morris.

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