DENVER -- The Rev. Susan Andrews has been elected moderator of Presbyterian Church (USA), the most senior position in the nation's largest Presbyterian denomination, according to news reports. She will lead the church for a one-year term.

Andrews, who was elected May 24, resigned from the board of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians two days later in order to be "moderator of the whole church," according to a report by PCUSA News.

The goal of Covenant Network is to remove the church requirement for fidelity in marriage or chastity in singleness among church leaders, the news service reported. The measure is seen as a bar on ordaining homosexuals to church office.

The Denver Post reported a committee approved a proposal May 27 to remove the requirement. The recommendation, which passed 35-29 with two abstentions, must be considered by the full General Assembly during the eight-day convention.

Two similar efforts in recent years have failed by increasingly wider margins.

Andrews, pastor of 686-member Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Md., received 53 percent of the votes, beating two male candidates, according to The Washington Post. Her election, which took effect immediately, makes her the Louisville, Ky.-based denomination's spokeswoman and ambassador.

She takes office as the church faces challenges of declining membership, a shrinking clergy pool and tension over other social issues like abortion.

Andrews said she thinks sexual orientation should not be a barrier to ordaining clergy, The Washington Post reported. But she told nearly 550 delegates at the annual General Assembly that she would not impose her views if elected.

"My number one priority is keeping the church together," she said. "I want those who disagree with me in my church. …We are going to need to learn to disagree about a nonessential tenet of our faith."

She did, however, say she thinks the church will ultimately alter its position on ordaining homosexuals as it had on a number of other issues in its history.

"The church has changed its mind on women and divorced clergy, and a hundred years ago on slavery," she said. "I believe the church will, when the time is right, change its mind on this issue."