A panel that interprets religious law for Conservative Jews put off a vote Wednesday on whether the movement should ordain gays and conduct union ceremonies for same-sex couples.

After a two-day private meeting in Maryland, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards said the proposals needed "extensive revisions" before any decision could be made.

The committee plans to take up the issue again in December.

The most recent major Conservative vote on the issue came in 1992, when the panel voted 19-3, with one abstention, that Jewish law barred openly gay students from enrolling in seminaries and prohibited rabbis from officiating at homosexual commitment ceremonies.

Four new legal opinions have been presented to the committee. Two essentially oppose any policy change, one would overturn the ban, and another, which was presented as a compromise, contends that Jewish law explicitly bars only anal sex, but includes no such prohibition on gay relationships, ordination and unions.

The Conservative movement occupies a middle ground between the liberal Reform branch and the traditional Orthodox, adhering to Jewish law while allowing some adaptation for modern circumstances.

Among other branches of American Judaism, the Reconstructionist and Reform movements ordain gays and support civil marriages for homosexual couples, while the Orthodox oppose same-gender relationships.

The legal question focuses on the significance of Leviticus 18:22, which states, "Do not lie with a male as one lies with a woman," and 20:13, which says such an act is punishable by death.

Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, which represents the Conservative movement's 1,600 rabbis worldwide and administers the Law Committee, said that the meeting was "intense" and the panel seemed "pretty divided."

"I think in the end there may be two decisions adopted," he said.

The committee's complex balloting system allows a proposal to be accepted with the support of just six of the 25 voting members of the panel — which means more than one legal opinion can be approved. If conflicting proposals are adopted, individual rabbis and presidents of the movement's five seminaries worldwide will decide which to follow.

The Conservative movement, with about 760 synagogues, is the second-largest branch of North American Judaism behind Reform, which has more members and synagogues. Estimates of the total U.S. Jewish population vary from 5.5 million to 6 million.