wfn.org | Lesbian clergywoman will face church trial

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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.
  
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United Methodist News Service
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