Presbyterian General Assembly:Homosexuality was described as "a sin of the most heinous kind, which calls down the judgment of God upon the sinner, or a society or church which tolerates, or promotes, or practises it", at the Presbyterian General Assembly in Belfast yesterday.
Rev Ken Patterson continued: "I know of no other sin which caused God to destroy whole cities in ancient times, but that is what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah . . . " He was speaking in a debate on pastoral guidelines for the care of homosexuals and which recommended ways of addressing homophobia in the church. The guidelines described homophobic attitudes as "unacceptable" and encouraged "repentence" on the part of the church for past treatment of gay people.
An amendment, proposing that the guideline be referred back to presbyteries, was narrowly defeated by 163 votes for to 168 votes against. Proposing the amendment, Rev William Moody said advice in the guidelines on not speaking of homosexuality as "unnatural" contradicted scripture. Seconding the amendment, Rev Stephen Neilly told the assembly that "Christ can deliver people fully from the sin of homosexuality just as much as alcoholism or from other sexual sin."
Proposing that the guidelines be adopted, Rev Bobby Liddle, who helped prepare them, said "it is very humbling to sit across a table from a young person who was committed to Jesus Christ, devoted to youth work in his church, active in evangelism, well grounded in scripture and to hear him tell how he stood with a rope around his neck feeling that to be the only answer - that suicide was preferable to being open with his church and his parents about his sexuality struggles."
Former moderator Rev Dr Ken Newell said it was his hope that the whole church,would send out "a very strong message" to gay people that it apologised "for any hurt that you have experienced and we pledge ourselves to cherish you". He continued: "To put it simply, if and when you need us, we are here for you."
Rev Richard Hill pointed out that Jesus told us to love our neighbour. "My neighbour is gay and lesbian and straight," he said.
The general assembly agreed to adopt the pastoral guidelines by 159 votes to 120.
The Presbyterian community at Maynooth, Co Kildare was formally established as a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland at the assembly yesterday. Proposing the memorial that made this possible, former moderator Rev Dr Trevor Morrow spoke of his "great sense of joy and not a little excitement at doing so". He said of all the places in Ireland where it might be expected a Presbyterian community might grow and thrive, the most unlikely was Maynooth.
"Maynooth, the epicentre of Irish Roman Catholicism; home of the House of Catholic Bishops; from whose seminary men went out to become leaders in the Catholic world," he said.