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Generally speaking, the UPCUSA (especially its leadership) was a strong supporter of progressive causes, such as civil rights and feminism. In December of 1960, UPCUSA stated clerk, Robert Blake, preached a sermon at Grace Episcopal Church in San Franicsco, in which he laid down the plan for uniting UPCUSA, the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ. Following Blake’s lead, the 1961 General Assembly sent invitations to the Presbyterian Church in the United States, the United Methodists, the Episcopalians, and the United Church of Christ, beginning what was called the “Consultation on Church Union,” but would be eventually renamed the “Churches of Christ Uniting”

Controversy and Departure
In keeping with the practice of the PC-USA, the UPCUSA continued the ordination of women. When the union between the UPCNA & the PC-USA occurred in 1958, it was understood that the new denomination would permit, but not require female ministers However, in 1974, Walter W. Kenyon, a student at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, informed his presbytery that, while he would be willing to work with female ministers, or impede their ordination, he would not participate in their installation. While his ordination was narrowly approved, it was overturned by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly the following year, with the commission stating that it was denomination's responsibility to refuse the ordination of those who refused the ordination of women, as the General Assembly had no power to grant the presbytery an exception to an already explicit constitutional provision. . Furthermore, in 1979, the General Assmebly ruled that all congregations must elect both men and women to the office of ruling elder. The ruling resulted in an exodus of approximately forty congregations, including Tenth Presbyterian Church, which would eventually realign with the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod

In 1976, the New York Presbytery petitioned the General Assembly asking for advice over what to do about a candidate who was a homosexual, yet who was otherwise qualified for ministry. A task force was assigned and came back with the proposal that the question should be up to the discretion of the presbyteries. However, after lobbying from the Presbyterians United for Biblical Concerns, the majority report was rejected by the General Assembly and voted overwhelmingly to affirm that “unrepentant homosexual practice does not accord with the requirements of ordination as set forth in the Book of Church Order.

Another controversy rocked the UPCUSA when the National Capital Union presbytery voted to receive a minister by the name of Mansfield Caseman, a move that was upheld by the 1981 General Assembly. Ordained in the United Church of Christ, Caseman denied the deity of Christ, His sinless nature and the bodily resurrection. This case resulted in a further wave of departures from the UPCUSA including those who founded the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, along with longtime Pittsburgh Seminary professor John Gerstner.