LOUISVILLE, KY – The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. has started taking  measures to allow openly gay men and lesbians in same-sex relationships be ordained as clergy.

The new rules, which also apply to elders and deacons, do not require churches to ordain gay candidates, but they remove barriers to their ordination that were written into the church’s constitution. The old text of the church’s Book of Order banned non-celibate clergy who did not live “within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman.” That prohibition was added in 1997.

The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. is the latest of several Protestant denominations that have dropped bans on gay clergy. Others include the United Church  of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Episcopal Church. A smaller denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, does not ordain women or openly gay clergy.