LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Delegates at the Presbyterian Church (USA) annual legislative convention will once again take up the debate over the role of homosexuals in the church when they meet May 24-31 in Denver.

The Religion News Service reports that for the fourth time in five years, the 2.5 million-member church will be asked to delete a rule that prevents non-celibate homosexuals and lesbians from serving as church officers and pastors.

Congregations in Des Moines, Iowa, presented a petition asking the 548 delegates to rescind the ban because it has created a hostile and divisive environment in our church that is contrary to God's reconciling love and the spirit of our Reformed faith.

The news service reported that support for the ban is weak and conservatives say they are frustrated that church leaders have turned a blind eye to congregations that have openly defied the ban.

Earlier this year, conservatives called for an unprecedented recall of last year's delegates to reprimand defiant churches. The church's leadership managed to stop a petition drive because they said it would cost too much money.

Alex Metherell, an elder from Laguna Beach, Calif., who spearheaded the recall, said the church has reached an irreconcilable impasse.

"Everyone's going along saying that we're all brothers and sisters in Christ, but that's baloney," Metherell told the news service. "If you look at what they say, it's two totally different worlds, and it can't continue."

The assembly is also expected to debate the church's position on late-term abortions, according to the news service. In 1997, the church voiced "grave moral concern" over late-term abortions, but last year amended its position to allow them when either the mother's or child's life is threatened, or in cases of rape or incest.

One resolution being presented would ban the procedure under the church's health insurance plan, another would remove the rape and incest amendments, and a third would endorse only procedures that give "both the mother and the child the opportunity to live," the news service reported.