US Presbyterian Church Votes to Change Its Definition of Marriage to "Two People"

This is a great step in the right direction, although it still has to be ratified:

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted at its General Assembly on Thursday to change its constitution's definition of marriage from "a man and a woman" to "two people," and to allow its ministers to perform same-sex marriages where it is legal.

Both measures, passed by large majorities, are a reversal for a church that in 1991 and in 2008 barred its pastors from performing same-sex marriages, and that has held ecclesiastical trials for ministers who violated the ban and blessed gay couples.

...But changing the definition of marriage in the church's Book of Order would still require ratification by a majority of the church's 172 regions, or presbyteries — a yearlong process. At the assembly in Detroit, the measure passed overwhelmingly — 71 percent to 29 percent — but only after an amendment that altered the language of the change from "two people" to "two people, traditionally a man and a woman," a nod to conservatives who would otherwise have voted against it.

The votes delighted observers and participants at the assembly who have been pushing for gay equality, many draped in hand-knit rainbow-colored stoles.

After the General Assembly voted to ordain openly gay clergy in 2010, a bunch of congregations left, and that will probably happen again. There are always people who self-exclude in response to inclusion. Godspeed.