The Presbytery of Charlotte added its support Tuesday to ending the ban on gays and lesbians becoming clergy and lay leaders in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Presbyterian church leaders from the seven-county Charlotte region voted 162-154 to change the denomination's constitution by removing a 1997 amendment that said the ordained must either be single and chaste or in a heterosexual marriage.

Going into Tuesday's local vote, that change already had won the backing of a majority of presbyteries in the country. It was scheduled to become effective in July, whatever the Charlotte vote.

Still, Tuesday's debate at Albemarle Road Presbyterian Church drew about 40 speakers - in addition to the two Charlotte pastors chosen to present the two sides.

The Rev. Kate Murphy of Hickory Grove Presbyterian, who made the case for removing the ban on gays and lesbians, said her reading of Scripture told her that "committed monogamous homosexual relations are not sinful in God's eyes."

Arguing the other side was the Rev. Robert Austell of Good Shepherd Presbyterian, who said the Bible "presents a very consistent view of sexuality as a gift of God reserved for marriage between a man and a woman."

The change that won out Tuesday and nationally does not mean that presbyteries must ordain gay candidates - only that they may.

Austell had hoped the Charlotte presbytery would go on record as rejecting any local change.

Prior to the vote, church leaders who favored allowing gay ordination distributed copies of "an appeal" to the presbytery signed by 68 prominent lay Presbyterians.

The signatories - including former Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl, Davidson Mayor John Woods and Charlotte City Council member Jason Burgess - said local business, educational and other institutions have benefitted from leaders who are gay, and that it's time the church did, too.

"We wanted the presbytery to know that support of this (change) came not just from liberal pastors, but also from lay people," said Doug Oldenburg, a former pastor of Charlotte's Covenant Presbyterian (1972-1987) who also served as the denomination's national moderator in 1988-89.

In North Carolina, four of the five presbyteries have now voted for the change. With 40,000 Presbyterians and 130 churches, the Presbytery of Charlotte is the denomination's third largest in the country.

By voting - after 33 years of debate - to accept gay clergy members and church leaders, the Presbyterian Church (USA) joins three other mainline Protestant denominations: The Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the United Church of Christ.

Some Presbyterian churches opposed to the change may now decide to bolt and join smaller, more conservative Presbyterian denominations.

But Sam Roberson, the general presbyter/stated clerk of the Charlotte presbytery, said there was less angst Tuesday than in past years. "I do think people left as brothers and sisters in Christ," he said.