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.
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