The committee was deeply divided on the issue and found common ground in referring the feasibility study to the Board of Pensions.
While the committee debated for three hours on the question, with some members calling it a “justice issue,” not a single commissioner said in Assembly debate Wednesday that the church should provide the benefits.
Some did speak in opposition. “I vote against this because from the very beginning it seems to me that it’s a way of condoning a lifestyle that I don’t support,” said edler Howard Guffey of Shenandoah Presbytery.
The Board of Pensions would not decide on its own whether to provide domestic partner benefits, but would consider issues related to how such benefits would fit in with its existing plan — the feasibility of offering pension or medical benefits or both, for instance, or benefits for children who might be adopted by domestic partners, said Board of Pension president Robert Maggs.
In other business, the Assembly voted down overtures to appoint task forces to review the Board of Pensions’ medical plan and find ways to make it more flexible, including removing requirements that pastors and some other employees enroll even if they’re already covered by other means. Advocates said medical dues make it hard for very small churches to afford to hire pastors. The assembly referred those to the General Assembly Committee on Review for the Board of Pensions and asked for a report to the 217th General Assembly in 2006.
The Assembly approved an overture to direct the Board of Pensions to revise rules for calculating salaries for churches with a clergy couple installed to one position. A previous rule change nearly doubled medical dues for such couples, making the dues nearly twice as costly as if one member of the couple worked full time and the other didn’t work.
To help pastors serving churches in areas with very high home prices, the Assembly called for the Presbyterian Investment & Loan Program to establish a work group to explore the possibility of establishing shared equity loans for such areas. The group will report back to the General Assembly Council within one year.
An overture recommending Board of Pension medical coverage for persons on active duty was disapproved because existing programs fully meet the needs of returning service members, but commissioners added a comment asking for exceptions for hardship cases. 
