NEW YORK (March 19) - The Reform Movement's rabbinical association is set to vote this week on a controversial resolution that, while not explicitly sanctioning gay marriage, will give its blessing to rabbis who choose - or decline - to officiate at same-gender ceremonies between two Jews.

The resolution, which does not refer to such unions as marriages, "supports giving affirmation to gays and lesbians and the relationships they form through appropriate Jewish ritual," said Rabbi Paul Menitoff, director of Reform's Central Conference of American Rabbis.

It would be "groundbreaking because it would be the first time a major religious body will have indicated its support for any of its clergy who decide to officiate at same-gender ceremonies," Menitoff said Friday.

The CCAR, which represents about 1,800 Reform rabbis in North America, will begin its annual convention on Thursday in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The vote is due a week after the Vermont state assembly authorized the widest array of rights and privileges for same-sex couples in the US.

By a narrow margin, it passed a bill Thursday that would create "civil unions" of gay and lesbian couples.

The Vermont measure, which is expected to pass the state senate next month, does not call the unions "marriages," but it would give these couples virtually all the benefits of marriage, including family leave and specific rights in child custody.

The Vermont bill said the state "has a strong interest in promoting stable and lasting families, including families based upon a same-sex couple."

The Reform Movement's resolution uses comparable language. It says that "committed same-gender relationships between two Jews... can serve as the foundation of stable Jewish families, thus adding strength to the Jewish community."

Menitoff said the prospects for the resolution are very good, although there are passionate feelings on both sides. The resolution will be introduced by the Women's Rabbinic Network, comprising 275 women CCAR members.

The Reform Movement, which some outsiders perceive as anarchic, is accustomed to people following their consciences, and there was no discernible discomfort with a resolution that said either stance on officiation was fine. However, because some Reform rabbis already officiate at such ceremonies, there were questions about why a resolution was necessary.

It also appeared that the resolution's passage would widen the breach between American and Israeli Reform rabbis. However, Menitoff said: "We are living in a very different culture than they are, and they understand why we are confronting this, and will understand that if this decision passes, it is aimed primarily at North America and comes out of a North American context."

The Reform Movement's vote comes only two months after more than 800 members of the clergy, primarily liberal Christians and Reform rabbis, signed a declaration on sexual morality calling on all faiths to bless same-sex couples and permit gay and lesbian ministers.

The resolution does not refer to marriage, but to "officiation at same-gender ceremonies." What those events are called is up to the individual rabbi and the couple.

"A rabbi may call it a commitment ceremony and the couple may choose to label it a marriage," Menitoff said.

It does, however, specify that the union is between two Jewish partners, and appears to rule out rabbinic officiation at interfaith same-gender ceremonies.

"The reality on the ground is that rabbis who don't officiate at mixed marriages certainly would not officiate at one of these ceremonies that involve a Jew and a non-Jew," Menitoff said.

"While the majority of our rabbis do not officiate at mixed marriages, we have a percentage of our rabbis who do," he said, noting that rabbis who officiate at mixed marriage would likely follow that practice for a same-gender couple.

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