wfn.org | Commentary: Verdict represents God doing a new thing

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March 25, 2004	News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
7 E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org 7 ALL-GBLT{129}

NOTE: A photograph of the Rev. Jeanne Knepper and a commentary representing a
different viewpoint on this issue - UMNS #130 - are available at
http://umns.umc.org.

A UMNS Commentary
By the Rev. Jeanne G. Knepper*

"Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about
to do a new thing; now it is springing forth, do you not perceive it? I will
make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."-Isaiah 43:18-19.

On March 20, 2004, a trial court of 13 clergy of the Pacific Northwest Annual
Conference voted to acquit the Rev. Karen Dammann of charges springing from
her own admission that she was a lesbian in a committed relationship.

The Rev. Chuck Cooper, observing the trial for the Reconciling Ministries
Clergy, wrote, "The Spirit of God was present without a doubt." 

On the other hand, Patricia Miller, executive director of the Confessing
Movement, said, "I believe the vast majority of United Methodists are in
grief and shock today. ... I think the issue is, a part of the jurisdiction
has broken covenant with the rest of the church and has decided to go the way
of the world, as opposed to being faithful to and abiding by church law."   

These two statements mark a growing chasm in United Methodism, of which the
Dammann trial and acquittal is both the most recent and the most vivid
illustration. If this chasm is not bridged, the denomination will not avoid
schism.  

What was once a situation of differences of deeply felt opinions has become
one in which schism is increasingly possible, precisely for the reason that
Miller observed: The division is increasingly geographical and jurisdictional
in nature. 

Although United Methodism has a high regard for law and structure, clergy
credentials rest in the care of the annual conferences. When the clergy of an
annual conference are unable to find convincing reason to convict an admitted
lesbian pastor of "practices declared by the United Methodist Church to be
incompatible with Christian teachings," that decision is final.  

The most telling part of the Dammann verdict is that not one member of the
trial court was willing to vote to convict. All of the jurors were clergy
members of the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference who had agreed that they
would be willing to set aside any personal convictions in order to apply
relevant portions of the denomination's Book of Discipline. Yet, 11 voted to
acquit, and two declared themselves undecided; none was convinced that the
law of United Methodism required them to convict Karen Dammann.  

The trial court's decision is a harbinger of change to come, whether it
occurs through the actions of United Methodism's quadrennial General
Conference or through the actions of United Methodists who are simply
unwilling to ignore God's new thing.

Change will come because the majority of clergy members in the Western
Jurisdiction's annual conferences have been unwilling to remove pastors who
officiated at a lesbian covenant service in the California-Nevada Annual
Conference, have been unwilling to remove the Rev. Mark Williams, an
admittedly gay man, from ministry, and are now unconvinced that they are
required to remove the Rev. Karen Dammann from ministry.  

The same jurisdiction that has sent petitions asking the last four General
Conferences to amend or delete disciplinary language about homosexuality is
increasingly unwilling to shape its practices by that discriminatory
language.

In little more than a month, the General Conference will meet and determine
the rules of United Methodism for the next four years. Following this trial,
it is clear that delegates have momentous choices to make. 

On the issues of homosexuality and justice, they can decide to adopt
petitions asking the church to become more specific in its prohibitory
language, more forceful in its legislation, more narrow in its determination
of appropriate United Methodist beliefs and practices - a choice that will be
followed by widespread dissension and probable schism.

They can decide to uphold the status quo, knowing that annual conferences in
the West, and perhaps in the North as well, will increasingly interpret the
Book of Discipline through eyes that see God longing for greater inclusion in
the church. That status quo would lead to an unacknowledged but de facto
situation where church law is enforced differently in different regions, and
much energy is spent in trying and decrying those differences.	

Or the delegates could finally recognize and acknowledge that people of
unabashedly Methodist and Christian convictions do not, cannot, and will not
agree on the subject of homosexuality. They could set aside the wrangling and
allow annual conferences to determine the worthiness of clergy as they always
have, by evaluating call, gifts, graces and fruits of ministry. 

Only by such action can the church acknowledge God's new rivers of grace
flowing in the desert, join hands as one people of God and bridge the chasm
that will otherwise tear the church apart.
# # #
*Knepper is the pastor at University Park United Methodist Church in
Portland, Ore., and a former co-spokesperson of Affirmation, a caucus dealing
with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. She can be reached by
e-mail at jgknepper@comcast.net.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org