He did comment, however, about the use of a secret ballot instead of a voice vote that is usual protocol. The decision was made after consultation with Ricks who concurred, he said. This was done in an attempt to discourage divisiveness and the exact vote count was not reported at the meeting and will not be reported in minutes that go out to churches, Cobb said.

More than 100 members from Chapel Hill’s Church of Reconciliation witnessed a historic first recently when one of its clergy became the nation’s first openly lesbian minister to be approved for ordination since the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted last year to allow openly gay people to be ordained.

The Presbytery of New Hope, meeting at Durham’s First Presbyterian, took the vote that means the Rev. Katie Ricks will be ordained April 15 in the church where she has served since her graduation from Columbia Seminary in 2002.

Her title has been “associate in ministry,” a title the church created for her to avoid the issue of ordination. The title “associate pastor” would indicate an ordained person.

Last December, Ricks passed the oral and written examinations given by the presbytery to all persons seeking ordination.

“The two-hour exam was anxiety producing,” she said recently. “But after it got started it was more like a pleasant conversation.”

Those seeking ordination in the Presbyterian Church must demonstrate their knowledge of the Bible, Presbyterian theology, church government and worship and sacraments.

On the floor of the presbytery meeting, she was asked only one question by a member of the examining committee and the floor was opened for other questions from the membership made up of clergy and local elders from across New Hope Presbytery, a geographical grouping of churches.

“I got only one question from the floor,” Ricks said. “It came from a man who identified himself as a conservative and wanted to know how I read Scripture in a way that affirms same-sex relationships when the traditional understanding is against them.”

Her answer included the idea that being gay is who God created her to be and that God had called her to live faithfully as a gay person.