The Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in recent years had approved changes in the church such as allowing ordination of homosexuals as ministers, elders or deacons, and permitting marriage of homosexual couples. Some held the assembly’s decision to allow insurance coverage to cover abortions for church employees as an issue of disagreement.

A majority of the congregation of Graystone Presbyterian Church voted Sunday afternoon to split the church away from Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a church source said.

The group seeking dismissal from the main Presbyterian organization achieved more than the required two-thirds majority vote. Favoring conservative traditional values, the faction opposed the more liberal doctrines adopted in recent years by Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The congregation voted 374 to 168 to seek Graystone’s dismissal from Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The balloting Sunday afternoon culminated an official process that began in January but had been decades in the making, said the Rev. Rick Hurley, a senior pastor at Graystone.

The voting and the process leading up to it were dictated by a policy enacted by the Kiskiminetas Presbytery, the equivalent of a diocese in the regional Presbyterian Church structure.

It’s called a “Gracious Separation Policy,” is a guideline for “discerning God’s will in the relationship between the presbytery and the member churches,” and was composed in light of changing times.

“These are not normal times, however, that we are living in,” the policy reads. “The church and the world are changing in ways our forbearers in faith could never have imagined. Our congregations, pastors, and members are dealing with issues inside and outside of ourselves which were not issues for us a decade ago. The relational fabric of our life together in Christ is being pulled in different directions. The prospect of change is frightening for some. Others are experiencing a crisis of conscience. The threat of being torn apart is real for this portion of the Body of Christ.”

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