wfn.org | BGM Lawsuit

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (138
notes).

Note 137 modified by UMNS on June 3, 1997 at 16:31 Eastern (2125 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                          325(10-21-71B){137}
          New York (212) 870-3803                     June 3, 1997

Mission board to appeal
job discrimination verdict

     NEW YORK (UMNS) -- The United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries plans to appeal a $180,000 court decision against it in
a job discrimination lawsuit.
     In a statement issued June 3, Deborah Bass, a board
executive, denied the allegation of the Rev. John Shirkey that he
was not hired by the board for a community developer's job because
he is white.
     According to the Associated Press, a U.S. District Court jury
in Baltimore decided May 29 that the mission agency should pay
Shirkey, now 60 and retired, $180,000. He filed the lawsuit in
1993.
     The community developers program was created during the 1960s
to support community efforts to address poverty and confront
racial discrimination. Shirkey, who had worked in community
outreach programs in the United Methodist Church's Baltimore-
Washington Annual (regional) Conference, sought a salary through
that program.
     Mark Swerdlin, the board's Baltimore-based attorney, said the
charge of discrimination is "baseless" and should not have
proceeded to trial.
     "Unfortunately," he noted in the board's statement, "the
court initially ruled that a statement by a non [board] official
to ... Shirkey that he could not apply for the job because of his
race was somehow attributable" to the Board of Global Ministries.
The ruling, Swerdlin said, legally could not be appealed at the
time.
     According to Bass, personnel for the community developers
program are chosen by local churches, not the board. The local
churches also develop and operate the programs, with the board
providing only a $5,000 grant for salary support. Currently, there
are more than 30 such community developers working with small
membership churches.
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