More than 500 prominent Christians - including academics, theologians, members of parliament, artists and activists - have signed a petition to the General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church to plead for the church’s condemnation of discrimination against homosexuality and the full acceptance of homosexuals in the church “as members and human beings”.

“We request of you to set in motion a structured process of reconciliation between heterosexual and gay members of the church,” the letter reads. The petitioners asked the church to “open the door” for church councils to openly elect gay clerics as office-bearers “without setting conditions that are not applicable to other people”. This refers to celibacy as a prerequisite only for gay ministers.

“We want to state with conviction that most people are born heterosexual and some are born gay. Just as a heterosexual orientation is not sin, a homosexual orientation is not sin either. And just as a moral heterosexual lifestyle is not sin, so too a moral homosexual lifestyle is not a sin,” it reads.

The letter was forwarded to Kobus Gerber, General Secretary, in anticipation of the church’s annual general synod meeting in Boksburg between June 4 and June 8. Gerber said that: “The executive church council will convene to discuss the contents of the letter. I cannot comment until we have discussed it.” Homosexuality and the church’s views on satan are among the central issues to be discussed.

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Meanwhile, the SA Union for Progressive Judaism (SAUPJ), after a landmark decision at its national assembly in Durban this month, announced it would allow marriages between Jewish couples of the same sex.??“This decision was arrived at after long and thoughtful deliberation and in the spirit of what Progressive Judaism is about - inclusion of all Jews regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity,” said SAUPJ Chairperson Steve Lurie. The union agreed that there should be no distinction in the status of religious marriages of same-sex or heterosexual couples, he said.