LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) suffered its worst annual membership decline in decades last year.

The Louisville-based denomination reported 2.2 million active and confirmed members in 2007, a loss of 57,572 members and a 2.5 percent decrease from 2006. It's the denomination's largest membership loss in terms of numbers since 1981 and the steepest percentage loss since 1974, when it fell 2.7 percent.

The church has steadily been losing members since peaking at 4.25 million in the mid-1960s.

"Any decline in membership is a disappointment, to be sure, because those numbers represent members we know and love who are no longer part of our congregations," said the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, who is completing a 12-year term as stated clerk of the PCUSA.

Opinions differ about the cause for the decline, including controversies over homosexuality, low birth rates, an aging white population and a societal move away from institutions in general. Some congregations also have left for a more conservative Presbyterian denomination.

MINNEAPOLIS — The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has told a liberal Roman Catholic church in Minneapolis that it can't hold its annual gay pride prayer service because the event goes against the teachings of the church.St. Joan of Arc Church has held the prayer service for several years in conjunction with the annual Twin Cities Pride Celebration. The archdiocese, however, suggested that the church hold a "peace" service with no mention of rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people."That descriptor (LGBT) was not possible on church property. We suggested they shift it, change the nature of it a little bit, and they did," archdiocese spokesman Dennis McGrath said. "The reason is quite simply because it was a LGBT pride prayer service, and that is really inimical to the teachings of the Catholic church."Officials with the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities, an independent coalition promoting acceptance of gays in the Catholic church, said they consider the action an attack by Archbishop John Nienstedt, who took the helm of the archdiocese in May.Nienstedt has said homosexuality is a disorder and is a leader in the campaign to persuade the Legislature to prohibit same-sex unions.