Denominational Split Over Homosexuality

From the AP:

The board of the Pacific Southwest region has voted unanimously to break ties with the 1.4 million-member American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., concluding a long dispute over homosexuality.

The region covers southern California and five other states with about 5 percent of the American Baptists' 5,800 congregations. The break is effective Nov. 1.

Denominational headquarters in Valley Forge, Pa., said ''a significant number of churches wish to remain American Baptist'' and would form a new southwestern association.

American Baptist policy states that ''homosexuality is incompatible with biblical teaching,'' but southwestern Baptists were upset that, in local situations, practicing homosexuals were ordained to the clergy and held leadership posts in American Baptist agencies.