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BOTHELL, Wash. (AP) -- A lesbian Methodist minister said she was relieved by her acquittal in a church trial over her sexual orientation - but so was the pastor who prosecuted her, and even the bishop who filed the complaint. A jury of 13 pastors said it decided in favor of the Rev. Karen Dammann "after many hours of painful and prayerful deliberations, and listening for and to the word of God." Dammann, 47, married her partner of nine years last month in Oregon, where officials have been allowing gay marriages. "It's been heart-stopping at times, too exciting at times,"...

Abortion Provider's New Chaplain Posits Pro-Choice Jesus Pro-Lifer Says Planned Parenthood's Pastor Contradicts Mainstream Christianity By Jim Brown and Jenni Parker March 11, 2004 (AgapePress) - A conservative Protestant activist says he is appalled but not surprised that a United Methodist minister has been hired to serve as chaplain of the nation's largest abortion provider. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has selected Pastor Ignacio Castuera to fill the newly created position and communicate "the theological justification for choice, sexuality, and contraception." Castuera serves as pastor at St. John's United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, California, and has been a...

<p>The Rev. Frederick Boyle, whose anti-war activism preceded his reassignment last year from the Millbrook United Methodist Church in Randolph, is facing a new controversy.</p> <p>Approximately 100 congregants at the Titusville United Methodist Church in Hopewell, where Boyle was moved last July following a pre-war trip to Iraq, met Sunday with Methodist church leaders to discuss his ongoing activism.</p>

And the 11th Commandment is . . . thou shalt not resort to cheap gimmicks - By Elizabeth Day (Filed: 29/02/2004) The Methodist Church is launching a nationwide competition to find the 11th Commandment in an effort to attract more young people. The initiative, which is being publicised on 250,000 beer mats and postcards in bars and cinemas across Britain, has attracted criticism for its "ridiculous gimmickry" and its attempt "to rewrite the Bible". The competition is being jointly run by the Ship of Fools website, a satirical online magazine on Christian issues and one of the most popular religious...

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...

The women bishops of the United Methodist Church have asked the members of Congress who are working on the foreign operations appropriations bills to fund the United Nations family planning program and to repeal the “gag rule.” The bishops have urged the House and Senate conferees to support the Senate version, which “upholds the importance of supporting women around the world and their reproductive health and access.” In their letter sent November 11, 2003, the bishops said: We write you as women of faith – a faith that calls us to show love and compassion to all peoples. In that...

TAMPA - As families celebrate Christmas today in churches, at dinner tables and around brightly decorated trees, Rose and Haven Whiteside will be flying toward Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. ``Maybe we'll see the star,'' Rose Whiteside, 71, says with a half-smile. ``That would make it some Christmas, wouldn't it?'' The final destination for this semiretired couple from Tampa is Baghdad, Iraq, where they will spend five weeks seeking the true meaning of Christmas - peace on Earth and goodwill toward men. They go to Iraq with just one carry-on each as volunteer reservists for the Christian Peacemaker Teams. And...

Methodist George W. Bush and Methodism's founder, John Wesley, share similarities. But the Rev. Wesley's example as a minister and social reformer provides instruction for Mr. Bush's own faith and presidency. First, the similarities. John Wesley, whose 300th birthday Methodists observe today, believed in personal spiritual discipline. He read his Bible daily. He prayed regularly. And he met with others in small groups. President Bush started practicing personal spiritual discipline about the time he gave up alcohol in the mid-1980s. He regularly reads the Bible. He says he can't imagine doing his job without prayer. And his more formative adult...

Copyright © 2002 The Quad-City Times | www.QCTimes.com Church convention expels livid man By Associated Press AMES, Iowa — A delegate to a Methodist Church convention was expelled from the four-day event after he repeatedly tore down banners criticizing civilian deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.Church officials said the delegate is a retired Marine colonel who was upset the hand-painted banners carried no mention of American and allied casualties.The man was expelled from the conference Friday. The event began Thursday and ends this afternoon.The banners were hung around the perimeter of Hilton Coliseum late Wednesday by the Rev. Ted Lyddon Hatten,...

Highlights of text: ...human sexuality is a good gift of God... ...homosexuality, heterosexuality and bi-sexuality all share that gift... ...we commit to proclaim that homosexual orientation (no less or more than heterosexual orientation) can be compatible with Christian teaching... We encourage clergy to preach this from our pulpits ... ...we encourage lay people to teach it in our Sunday school classes and tell it to our children... ...we affirm that loving, monogamous, intimate relationships between persons of the same or opposite gender, are an expression of God's love... ...we affirm that persons of all sexual orientations are equally called to...

A group of leaders from President George W. Bush's denomination, the United Methodist Church, have signed a magazine ad asking the chief executive to "repent" of what they consider policies "incompatible" with Christian teaching, reports the Christian Times. The group of 120 signatories to the document, entitled "A Prophetic Epistle from United Methodists Calling Our Brother George W. Bush to Repent," includes seven United Methodist Church bishops. "It is our judgment that some policies advanced by your administration give evidence of the spiritual forces of wickedness that exist in our society today," the ad read, according to the report. The...

DALLAS, May 31, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- David Najjab is an educator with an unusual problem - he's trying to lure students who are serious about making a career out of fun and games. As director of the new school of video game making at Southern Methodist University, Najjab plans to attract students by using some of the area's game luminaries - including members of id Software Inc., maker of the famed "Doom" and "Quake" games - as teachers and speakers. But he's got plenty of competition from schools around the country. Formal game education remains a...

Seminary Professor Claims Jesus Was Gay Tuesday, May 27, 2003, 7:17 a.m. (Undated-AP) -- A Methodist professor at the United Church of Christ's Chicago Theological Seminary says the Bible suggests that Jesus was gay. The Reverend Theodore Jennings Junior makes that case in a book titled "The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narratives From the New Testament." Jennings writes that the "the disciple Jesus loved" who's mentioned in the Gospel of John was the Lord's gay boyfriend. He also claims the centurion's servant who was healed by Jesus was the centurion's gay boyfriend and that Jesus didn't denounce their relationship....

Sex doesn't matter This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows. To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32741 Sunday, May 25, 2003 BRAVE NEW SCHOOLSCollege dorm 2003: Sex doesn't matterTransgender students treated royallyat university founded by Methodists Posted: May 25, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com A liberal-arts school founded by a church is believed to be the first American college to provide special housing for transgender students. Freshman students this fall at Wesleyan University in Connecticut will have the option of living in a new "gender-blind" facility – one floor of a dorm accommodating up to 12 students,...

College reserves transgender student dorm by 365Gay.com This fall Wesleyan University of Middletown, Conn., will become the first American college to offer transgender students specialized housing. A number of universities already have gay and lesbian housing, but it is believed this is the first time transgender students will be given their own space. Transgender students in the freshman class will have the option of living in the new "gender-blind" facility, one floor of a dormitory for students who don't want to be categorized as one gender or another. The university has adopted a new mission statement that says freshmen who...

Evangelical Methodists Experiencing Intolerance from Within Denomination By Jim Brown May 21, 2003 (AgapePress) - The head of an evangelical renewal movement within the United Methodist Church is voicing concern about what he calls "a pattern of sharp verbal attacks" on evangelical views and groups in his denomination. At a meeting earlier this month, the Good News Board of Directors cited three recent attacks against Bible-believing Methodist groups. One of those attacks, it said, is a book published by the "Information Project for United Methodists" which claims the denomination is at great risk from conservative groups like Good News, the...

'Ambiguous Genitalia'???Wesleyan University in Connecticut will in September inaugurate a “gender-blind” dormitory for incoming students who aren’t sure what sex they are, reports the Hartford Courant. Students who opt for the floor will have roommates appointed without regard to their sex, perceived or otherwise. The rooms will be set aside for transgender students, described as those born with ambiguous genitalia or who don't identify with their physical sex. A famously liberal school, Wesleyan has garnered publicity in recent years for a course on pornography, a "queer prom" and rumors of a "naked dorm." Often, the publicity has been accompanied by...

Methodist Bishop: God of Christianity, God of Islam -- One and the Same By Jim Brown April 10, 2003 (AgapePress) - While the U.S. is waging a battle against Muslim terrorists around the world, a controversial United Methodist bishop is claiming the god of Islam -- Allah -- is the God of the Bible. Bishop Joe Sprague of Chicago has become a controversial figure in the United Methodist Church with his public denials of the virgin birth, blood atonement and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many in the denomination have already called for his resignation, including conservatives like Mark Tooley,...

Methodist Pastor Not Fazed by Peace Group's Possible Link with Communists By Jim Brown April 7, 2003 (AgapePress) - Some United Methodists in Tennessee are expressing outrage over their denomination's affiliation with a Nashville anti-war group with strong communist ties. But one local Methodist pastor has no problem with the relationship. After doing some investigation, Nashville talk-show host Phil Valentine recently informed listeners that the United Methodist Church, the Communist Party USA, and the Democratic Socialists of America were all member organizations of the Nashville Peace and Justice Center (NPJC). Valentine also learned that the Communist Party USA and the...

<p>RANDOLPH -- The Rev. Frederick Boyle, whose high-profile "peace mission" to Iraq generated some criticism, said Thursday that the controversy might result in his reassignment to another church.</p> <p>"The church in Millbrook will continue, as will my ministry. It just might not be together," said Boyle, who has served as the Millbrook United Methodist Church's pastor for three years.</p>