After a holiday break, it's back to work for the New Jersey Legislature and back to lobbying for supporters of a gay marriage bill that has stalled in Trenton.

The bill was punted back to the Senate on New Year's Eve when Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, a Democrat from Camden, said he had heard enough on the bill and was prepared to put the bill up for a vote without a committee hearing but added that the Assembly would not take the lead in voting for the measure.

Democratic Senate sponsors Loretta Weinberg and Raymond Lesniak have asked Senate President Richard Codey, a Democrat from Essex, to hold a floor vote on the bill Thursday. A Senate Judiciary Committee narrowly approved the measure last month.

Supporters of the bill said they would hold a rally at the Statehouse Monday and urge legislators to approve the bill before Governor-elect Chris Christie, a Republican opposed to gay marriage, takes office on January 19.

A group of New Jersey clergy also signed on to a letter addressed to Senate President Codey and Assembly Speaker Roberts urging passage.

“We are 120 clergy members across New Jersey from 19 faiths and denominations,” the letter reads. “We are but a sample of New Jersey clergy who support marriage equality and wish to marry same-sex couples legally.”

“We urgently ask you to put the marriage equality bill to a vote in your respective houses – without precondition – before the end of the current legislative session. The State must get out of our sanctuaries and uphold our religious freedom as clergy to marry whom we wish, or don't wish, under State law.”

The Democrat-controlled Senate remains the major obstacle to passage. Democrats rule the chamber with two votes to spare but remain divided on the bill.

Many senators say the loss of the governor's mansion to an anti-gay marriage Republican is signal enough to vote against the bill.