The ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer (LGBTQ) clergy who are open about their sexuality or gender identity; are sexually active if lesbian, gay, or bisexual; or are in committed same-sex relationships is a debated practice within some contemporary Christian denominations.
While many Christian denominations ban the ordination of sexually active LGBTQ clergy because they view homosexuality as incompatible with biblical doctrine and do not allow those identifying as transgender to be ordained for the same reason,Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation (New York: Viking, 2004), 601. a growing number of churches are allowing openly LGBTQ clergy to serve.
The Metropolitan Community Church, a predominantly LGBTQ church, has ordained LGBTQ candidates for ministry since its founding in 1968. In 1972, the United Church of Christ became the first mainline Protestant denomination in the United States to ordain an openly gay clergy person. Other churches that allow LGBTQ clergy are the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Church of Scotland, the Church of England, the Church in Wales, the Uniting Church in Australia, the Church of Sweden, the Church of Norway, the Church of Denmark, the Church of Iceland, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical Church in Germany, the Methodist Church in Britain, the United Methodist Church, the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, the United Protestant Church in Belgium, the Swiss Reformed Church, the United Protestant Church of France, the United Church of Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Anglican Church in Canada, the Old Catholic Church, the Czechoslovak Hussite Church and the United Church of Christ in Japan.
The issue of ordination has caused particular controversy in the worldwide Anglican communion, following the election of the Bishop of New Hampshire Gene Robinson in the U.S. Episcopal Church.
Protestantism Progressive Protestant denominations
Episcopal polities In the United States, the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) and the Episcopal Church or ECUSA allow the ordination of openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender clergy. In 2012 the Episcopal Church of the United States approved a change to their nondiscrimination canons to include gender identity and expression. In 2026 Micah Cronin became the first openly transgender cathedral dean in the Episcopal Church of the United States, upon being installed dean of All Saints' Cathedral in Milwaukee. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America decided in August 2009 to accept gay, lesbian, and bisexual clergy in sexually active monogamous relationships. In 2014 Megan Rohrer became the first openly transgender leader of an ELCA congregation (specifically, Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church of San Francisco.)
In July 2011 the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada decided to accept gay, lesbian, and bisexual clergy in sexually active monogamous relationships. In 2013, openly gay minister Guy Erwin was ordained as a bishop in California. In 2016, the Anglican Church of Canada elected its first openly gay bishop.
The Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil supports the ordination of LGBT clergy. In New Zealand, the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia ordained an openly gay deacon in 2006. The Anglican Church of Australia has no official position on homosexuality. In 2012, the Diocese of Gippsland in Australia appointed an openly partnered gay priest.
In Scandinavia, the Church of Sweden permits openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual clergy to act as ministers, often in senior positions. In May 2009 the Diocese of Stockholm elected Eva Brunne as its Bishop-Elect. Brunne lives in a same-sex marriage with another woman, and they have a son. Likewise, the Danish National Church, the Church of Norway, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Church of Iceland permit the ordination of openly LGBTQ clergy. In 1993 was lutheran Norway bishop Rosemarie Köhn ordained. She was married with Susanne Sønderbo.Kirken.no: Biskopen som vant folks hjerter, October 30, 2022
In Germany, the Lutheran, United and Reformed churches as part of the Evangelical Church ordain openly LGBTQ Christian clergy. In 2008, the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church announced that Horst Gorski, who was openly gay, had been nominated as a Lutheran bishop, but he did not make election.
In the United Kingdom, the Church of England has permitted transgender priests to serve since 2000. The Church of England has also allowed gay and lesbian priests in civil partnerships since 2005. In 2013, the church allowed bishops to enter into same-sex civil partnerships. In 2016, Bishop Nicholas Chamberlain, the Bishop of Grantham, was the first to announce that he is in a same-sex partnership. The Church in Wales has allowed priests to enter into civil partnerships since 2005. The Scottish Episcopal Church has ordained LGBT priests since before 2002. The Church of Ireland has no formal policy on civil partnerships and the first priest entered into a same-sex civil partnership in 2011.
In South Africa, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa is among the denominations in which gay priests can be "legally ordained." Before 2003, the Rev. Rowan Smith came out as gay and was supported by his congregation. The South African church also consecrated an openly gay bishop, Bishop Mervyn Castle.
A bishop in the Church of South India, also a part of the Anglican Communion, stated that he would ordain a transgender priest.
Presbyterian polities In the United States, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) allows the ordination of openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual clergy. In 2012, Katie Ricks became the first open lesbian to be ordained in the church.Katie Ricks: Presbyterians Ordain Their First Out Lesbian. The Advocate. retrieved 6 June 2012
The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), the second-largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States, adheres to what they perceive as the biblical stance on homosexuality, affirming that "the act of homosexuality is a sin according to God's Word." Therefore, a practicing homosexual continuing in this sin would not be a fit candidate for ordination or membership in the Presbyterian Church in America.
The Reformed Church in America is another reformed denomination in the US with gay clergy serving congregations. "Some RCA churches have gay pastors, but their ordination is from other denominations."
The Church of Scotland discussed the issue at its 2009 General Assembly. This was in response to the induction of openly gay minister Rev. Scott Rennie, to serve at Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen. The outcome was agreement that the induction, which had triggered the debate, should go ahead, but that no further such cases should be permitted until a commission on the subject has reported in 2011. In 2011, the Church of Scotland voted at its 2011 General Assembly to allow open gay, lesbian, and bisexual ministers who live in civil unions. On 20 May 2013, the General Assembly of the Kirk approved a proposal to allow gay, lesbian, and bisexual ministers. Parishes will be able to 'opt out' of this new policy. In 2016, the General Assembly voted to allow ministers to enter into same-sex marriages.
Connexional polities
The United Methodist Church has also been discussing the issue for many years; its official position until May 2018 denied ordination to "Self-Avowed Practicing Homosexuals". On 7 May 2018 the Bishops in the United Methodist Church, a denomination long divided on questions of LGBTQ equality, have proposed allowing individual pastors and regional church bodies to decide whether to ordain LGBT clergy and perform same-sex weddings. As a result of this, and of other affirming policies on the part of select Jurisdictions and Conferences, some regions of UMC in the United States have allowed for the ordination and/or appointment of LGBTQ clergy to pastoral ministry. In 2008, the United Methodist Church Judicial Council ruled that openly transgender pastor Drew Phoenix could keep his position. At the UMC General Conference the same year, several petitions that would have forbidden transgender clergy and added anti-transgender language to the Book of Discipline were rejected. Additionally, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in full communion with the UMC, currently prohibits its ministers from officiating at same-sex weddings, but it does not have an official policy on gay pastors and, so, some openly gay AME clergy have been ordained.
Yet, in 2016, the New York Annual Conference ordained the United Methodist Church's first openly gay and lesbian clergy. In July 2016, the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church consecrated the denomination's first openly gay and married bishop, Karen Oliveto.
The United Church of Christ in the Philippines, a denomination that resulted from the merger of several Protestant denominations, has an "openness to ordain openly gay and lesbian church workers."
The Methodist Church of Great Britain "resolved that its previous ruling that there was no reason per se to prevent anyone within the Church, ordained or lay, from entering into or remaining within a civil partnership, should also extend to those entering into legally contracted same-sex marriages."
The Methodist Church of Southern Africa "did not have a rule prohibiting its members or ministers from marrying someone of the same sex, the Western Cape High Court heard on Tuesday." Another court ruled that "The Methodist Church 'tolerates homosexuals' and even accepts same-sex relationships (as long as such relationships are not solemnised by marriage)."
The Methodist Church of New Zealand has ordained openly gay and lesbian pastors since 2004.
Congregationalist polities
The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches is the first denomination with an official stance allowing non-celibate gays, lesbians, and bisexuals to be ordained in 1968. J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedia of Protestantism, Infobase Publishing, USA, 2005, p. 557
The United Church of Christ began ordaining LGBTQ clergy in the 1970s. The Rev. William R. Johnson was ordained in 1972 and the Rev. Anne Holmes in 1981. The UCC's executive council endorsed ordination of gay and lesbian candidates in 1973 and was the first mainline denomination in the United States to endorse marriage equality (2005). A number of openly gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender ministers now serve throughout the church.
The United Christian Church decided to ordain openly LGBTQ Christian clergy at First Annual Conference in Seattle, WA in 2010.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has a decentralized church structure as well. Regional bodies ordain individuals and as such have different rules regarding ordination. Northern California is the only region labeled as Open and Inclusive; however, the Ohio Commission on Ministry (the body that grants ordination) has decided that sexual orientation is not a criterion for ordination. At the 2012 Regional Assemblies, a number of Disciples regions (including Kentucky and Indiana) joined Ohio in eliminating sexual orientation as a restriction for ordination. Other regions are in the process of investigating the matter, mostly on a polity (since congregations determine ethical fitness for candidates and hire their ministers) and not a theological basis. In July 2013, the General Assembly of The Disciples of Christ passed a "Sense of the Assembly" resolution (GA-1327 "Becoming a People of Grace and Welcome to All") to allow ordination clergy "regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity", although no individual congregation will be forced to ordain LGBT clergy if they object to doing so.