| RICHMOND, July 1 - The General Assembly on Wednesday approved a commissioners' resolution asking the Presbyterian Board of Pensions (BOP) to explore the feasibility of making the same benefits provided to married couples available to domestic partners in long-term committed relationships, including same-sex relationships.
The commissioners voted 328 to 173, with seven abstentions, to approve the measure. The Assembly Committee on Pensions, Foundation and PILP had recommended approval.
BOP is instructed to report on the matter to the 217th Assembly, in 2006. The pensions committee added a comment that the resolution should be reviewed and deliberated "in accordance with the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA)."
The resolution was submitted by commissioners John Rhodes, of the Presbytery of New York City, and William Dummer, of the Presbytery of Milwaukee. The rationale filed with it said such benefits, "which married couples in our society take for granted, are routinely denied to same-sex couples in long-term relationships."
According to the rationale, an increasing number of corporations are granting domestic-partner benefits to employees in long-term same-sex relationships - including health, dental and vision-care insurance, beneficiary designations for pensions, funeral and bereavement leave, and flexible spending accounts for health and childcare expenses.
The resolution pointed out that the 2002 Assembly reaffirmed the call of the 1978 General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA) for its members "to work for the passage of laws that prohibit discrimination in the areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations based on the sexual orientation of a person."
In related business, the Assembly:
- Confirmed the re-election of Robert E. Leech as president and chief executive officer of the Foundation for an additional four-year term.
- Confirmed the election of the Rev. James L. Hudson as president of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Investment and Loan Program (PILP).
- Disapproved an overture from the Presbytery of Abingdon calling for the appointment of a task force to review BOP's medical plan.
- Asked BOP to revise its rules for calculating salary for clergy couples serving in the equivalent of one position.
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