Presbyterian Church (USA) delays debate on requiring monogamy for ministers

Presbyterian Church (USA) delays debate on requiring monogamy for ministers

Updated: Jun. 29, 2026, 1:38 p.m. |Published: Jun. 29, 2026, 1:30 p.m.

Now that marriage has been re-defined to include same-sex couples, should monogamy still be required among married clergy in the largest mainline Presbyterian Church?

A controversial proposal to forbid polyamory or polygamous sexual relationships among Presbyterian Church (USA) ministers was expected to be debated this week but has been referred to a committee after meeting strong opposition from denominational activists.

The 1-million-member mainline Presbyterian Church (USA) began its main business sessions this week at its General Assembly in Milwaukee, after committee meetings last week.

The Constitutional Interpretation Committee voted June 24 to forward the controversial proposal, called CON-10, to the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, which is working on a document called “Beyond Changing Families: Flourishing Relationships and Belonging.”

That means it won’t come up for a vote this week.

More Light Presbyterians had released a statement opposing the original proposal, called Overture 044, saying requiring monogamy for clergy targeted queer communities.

“While framed in the language of faithfulness, it risks reinforcing narrow and culturally bound definitions of relationship that have historically been used to exclude, police, and harm queer bodies and lives,” More Light said. “Because LGBTQIA+ people have so often been subjected to disproportionate scrutiny regarding our bodies, relationships, intimacy, and fitness for leadership, this overture will inevitable be experienced and enacted as an attack on queerness.”

More Light leaders say that openly polyamorous clergy have been prevented from ordination because they were not monogamous.

When it held its groundbreaking 2011 General Assembly in Birmingham, the Presbyterian Church (USA) amended its Book of Order to remove its traditional requirement that clergy practice “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness,” in order to allow openly LGBTQ candidates to be ordained.

The lifting of the monogamy rule has since raised other issues.

Although the debate has been delayed, activists predict that mainline Protestant denominations will have to confront the issue of monogamy eventually. The Rev. Claudia Aguilar Rubalcava, director of engagement for More Light Presbyterians, told RNS that it may be the next emerging controversy. “I think it is the next big conversation that most mainline denominations will have,” she said.