In 2015, PCUSA amended its constitution to change the definition of marriage to read in part, “Marriage involves a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman, to love and support each other for the rest of their lives.” The prior year, the General Assembly had allowed pastors in the PCUSA to conduct ceremonies that united same-sex couples. This decision prompted the 2015 constitutional change.
The mainline Presbyterian Church (USA) announced this week it will change the way it reports statistical information about the denomination’s membership to now include a category for nonbinary/genderqueer reporting.
The PCUSA is the largest Presbyterian denomination in America. It claims to have 1.1 million active members and 8,813 churches. However, less than 425-thousand attend PCUSA churches, a drop of nearly 50 percent in the past decade.
The Office of General Assembly (OGA) said the new reporting will more accurately reflect the makeup of the denomination.
“If we want to be inclusive, then we have to start asking because you should be aware of who’s a part of your church,” Kris Valerius, manager of the PCUSA’s roles and statistics said of what she called an “important change.”
She admits she is uncertain how many members will choose the nonbinary/genderqueer category because it has not been offered as an option before.
In 2015, PCUSA amended its constitution to change the definition of marriage to read in part, “Marriage involves a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman, to love and support each other for the rest of their lives.”
The prior year, the General Assembly had allowed pastors in the PCUSA to conduct ceremonies that united same-sex couples. This decision prompted the 2015 constitutional change.
The denomination is also removing the definitions for racial/ethnic sections of the reports based on the instructions of the General Assembly.
