Lesbian clergywoman will face church trial

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[chance33_98]

Lesbian clergywoman will face church trial

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From "NewsDesk" Date Wed, 14 Jan 2004 19:16:06 -0600

Jan. 14, 2004 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 7 E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org 7 ALL-BLGT{012}

By United Methodist News Service

A Washington state clergywoman will face a United Methodist church trial for disclosing that she is living in a "covenanted homosexual relationship."

The Rev. Karen Dammann, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Ellensburg, made the disclosure to her bishop, Elias Galvan, in 2001. The United Methodist Book of Discipline bars "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" from being ordained or serving as clergy. The book also affirms gays as people of sacred worth.

The call for a trial was approved by a 5-2 vote by the Committee on Investigation of the denomination's Pacific Northwest Annual (regional) Conference, after a Jan. 12 hearing.

The committee is finalizing the bill of charges, said the Rev. Elaine Stanovsky, conference council director and assistant to the bishop, Jan. 14.

Galvan will be working this week with district superintendents on selecting a pool of jurors for the trial court, and he will be speaking with other bishops about who might preside over the trial, Stanovsky said. "We won't know the location and date until we have a presiding officer."

In a clergy trial, a panel of 13 United Methodist pastors serves as the jury, and at least nine votes are needed to convict. The pastors are chosen from a jury pool named by the annual conference cabinet. A bishop presides over the trial. In cases of conviction, the Book of Discipline provides for a range of penalties, including loss of ministerial orders for the clergy member.

Dammann couldn't be reached for comment by deadline Jan. 14. She continues to serve her congregation in Ellensburg, about two hours east of Seattle. Both Stanovsky and the bishop have had contact with the church's members in recent months, and Stanovsky said the congregation largely supports its pastor.

"The overwhelming majority of the church is supportive of Karen's ministry and want her to continue as their pastor," Stanovsky said.

Dammann's case has followed a winding path since she informed her bishop that she was "living in a partnered, covenanted homosexual relationship." At the direction of the Judicial Council, Galvan filed a complaint against Dammann, citing "practices declared by the United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings."

The case went through the church's judicial process and reached the Judicial Council a second time last fall. The court reversed decisions by two lower church bodies - the conference committee on investigation and the Western Jurisdiction Committee on Appeals. Both of those committees had dismissed the charges against Dammann in split votes.

The court said both committees had committed "an egregious error of church law" by refusing to apply the Book of Discipline and the council's earlier decisions in the case. The Judicial Council also said that if members of the committee on investigation were "unwilling to uphold the Discipline for reasons of conscience or otherwise, such members must step aside in this matter."

The Judicial Council said it would retain jurisdiction "for the purpose of ensuring that its decision is implemented."

Following the council's ruling, one member of the committee on investigation stepped aside and was replaced by an alternate, according to Stanovsky's office. The committee met in mid-December in a closed hearing before convening again Jan. 12.

[martin_fierro]

[SouthernFreebird]

A Church Trial....thats some scary stuff.

[TheGeezer]

What on earth is a "covenanted homosexual relationship"?

Where is St. Paul when you need him?

[martin_fierro]

Rev. Karen Dammann

I suppose she could always get a gig down at Our Lady of the Exquisite Irony.

[brbethke]

Well, if the Methodists boot her out, she'll find a warm, utterly non-judgemental welcome waiting for her in the Episcopal Church. In fact, she sounds like potential bishop material!

[rovenstinez]

Hey, take it on the chin. I got thrown out of the Methodist church for speaking in tongues. I felt good about that. Being a lesbian.....yep, you need to be thrown out too!

[Yeti]

Hm.

[Fifth Business]

I got thrown out of the Methodist church for speaking in tongues. I felt good about that. Being a lesbian.....yep, you need to be thrown out too!

Insert clever linguist joke here.

[punster]

The Methodist Church also says that it is a woman's duty to submit to rape instead of doing anything that might injure her assailant. How's that for irony.

[Blake#1]

Wise Up! She will not find a home in the Anglican Diosese of Christ the King. This Diosese is the Reformed Episcopal Church. We posted our "articles" in 1978. If you are a reformed minded Episcopalian why not join us? 1928 year book, married priest perfered, no women priest.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

1 Corinthians 14:34
Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.
(Whole Chapter: 1 Corinthians 14 In context: 1 Corinthians 14:33-35)


1 Corinthians 14:35
And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
(Whole Chapter: 1 Corinthians 14 In context: 1 Corinthians 14:34-36)

[Devil_Anse]

Hm, indeed! Let us all worship at the altar of absudity.

And how, exactly, does her "covenanted homosexual relationship" benefit society?

[hunter112]

Where is St. Paul when you need him?

Dead, last time anyone checked. Post #12 is one of the reasons that not everybody's sad about it, either.

I'm a bit surprised to see that, even though this is in WA state, its east of the mountains, she'd get a lot less hassle in Seattle, no doubt.

[LiteKeeper]

she was "living in a partnered, covenanted homosexual relationship."

Read "living in sin" - and as a so-called "pastor" that is unacceptable...but then again so is the fact that she was ever ordained in the first place.

[LiteKeeper]

The Methodist Church also says that it is a woman's duty to submit to rape instead of doing anything that might injure her assailant.

Chapter and verse of any source, please.

[hosepipe]

[ I suppose she could always get a gig down at Our Lady of the Exquisite Irony. ]

LoL.......

[little jeremiah]

Homosexual Agenda Ping - Methodists take note!

If anyone wants on or off this ping list, let me know!

It's been rather busy lately.

[brbethke]

Sadly, the nearest APA or REC parish is about a thousand miles away from us. We're still looking for a reasonably local alternative to the ECUSA, but here in the People's Republic of Minnesota, pickings are mighty slim.

[punster]

"Chapter and verse of any source, please."

I found the following on the NRAILA website.

The same general view has been endorsed on religious grounds by a leading representative of the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church (which is one of several quite different Methodist denominations in the U.S.). The Board has long been the force behind the National Coalition to Ban Handguns (which has now been renamed the Coalition Against Gun Violence (CSGV) to emphasize that it seeks to ban not just handguns but any long gun designed primarily for self-defense.)

Rather than shooting rapists, it is women`s Christian duty to submit to rape, according to an article by Reverend Allen Brockway, editor of the official magazine of the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church. He poses the rhetorical question, "Is the Robber My Brother?" and Reverend Brockway answers, "Yes."

Rev. Brockway recognizes that the woman who is accosted in the park may not think of her violator as her neighbor, or that his "safety is of immediate concern"--but, Brockway preaches, "Criminals are members of the larger community no less than are others. As such, they are our neighbors or, as Jesus put it, our brothers. . . . [Though violent criminals act wrongfully,] it is equally wrong for the victim to kill the robber or burglar, save in those extremely rare circumstances when the unambiguous alternative is one own`s death."3

3 Brockway, "But the Bible Doesn`t Mention Pistols," Engage/Social Action Forum, May, 1977, pp. 39-40. This article also has been published in a separate pamphlet by the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, titled Handguns in the United States. The Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, one of several Methodist denominations in the U.S., founded the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV), one of the two major national anti-gun groups. The Board was CSGV`s official fiscal agent until gun lobby complaints to IRS threatened the Church`s tax exemption. CSGV still shares the Board`s Washington, D.C., building and the Board remains a part of CSGV`s coalition.


I hope this answers your questions.