Lull before another Presbyterian storm?

It's been rather quiet
on the Presbyterian battlefront since May 10, when the Twin Cities presbytery
in Minnesota became the 87th to vote to lift the ban on LGBT
ministers, elders and deacons. That was the decisive vote, and by July 10 the
historic change was official.

The high court for the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) early this month cleared the way for a
re-ordination ceremony for Scott Anderson, who is executive director of the
Wisconsin Council of Churches (and held a similar post in California). Anderson
set aside his ordination in 1990 when a congregation revealed that he was a
partnered gay man.

However, no flood of
gay and lesbian ministers is forthcoming because of the multi-year process
before ordination. "I believe [pastoral ordinations] will happen a few at a
time for this first year," said Michael Adee, spokesperson for the pro-LGBT More Light Presbyterians,
in an e-mail.