A major Christian denomination in Australia could become the first in the country formally to adopt same-sex marriage.
The Uniting Church is the third largest denomination in the country after the Anglican and Catholic churches and was born out of the Methodist Church. A committee tasked with reviewing its teaching on marriage has recommended the doctrine be changed to allow for gay marriages.
The decision will now pass to the 265 members of the Uniting Church's Assembly, which acts as its ruling body and meets from July 8-14 in Melbourne.
The report endorsed by the church's working group on doctrine said that 'scientific research generally supports the view that people who are attracted to someone of the same gender were born that way'.
'This knowledge supports the view that same-gender sexual attraction can be understood as part of God's good and diverse creation rather than unnatural,' it says.
'It is common knowledge that discrimination against people because of their sexual orientation has very damaging impacts on their health and wellbeing,' it goes on.
'If the church is committed to learning from Jesus about challenging the injustice of excluding people then it will seriously consider extending marriage to couples of the same gender.'
If passed ministers 'may exercise freedom of conscience with regards to accepting requests to celebrate marriages, including same-gender marriages', the motion proposed for debate says.
President of Uniting Church in Australia Stuart McMillan told SBS News: 'As you would expect, just as in the rest of the country, there is a wide range of views across the Uniting Church on marriage.
'We respect that people have a diversity of views that they come to from a range of different religious, cultural or personal perspectives.
'We also acknowledge that these discussions are painful for some people and we ask our members to show love towards each other and remain respectful throughout our conversations.'
