wfn.org | Unofficial church groups react to Judicial Council ruling

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Nov. 7, 2001 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-28-71B{516}

By United Methodist News Service

The United Methodist Judicial Council's recent decision regarding gay clergy
is drawing praise and criticism from independent groups around the
denomination.

The church's supreme court ruled in a lengthy decision that two passages in
the denomination's Book of Discipline do not contradict each other regarding
the appointment of ministers who are gays or lesbians. One passage forbids
the ordination and appointment of "self-avowed practicing homosexuals,"
while the other states that all clergy in good standing shall receive
appointments. The Pacific Northwest Annual (regional) Conference requested
that the court issue a declaratory decision on the passages after two openly
gay clergy members requested appointments to local churches. The two pastors
are deemed in good standing by the conference.

In its Oct. 24-26 session, the court ruled that a bishop couldn't
unilaterally deny a clergy person an appointment without going through the
due process outlined in the Book of Discipline. It also ruled that the
acknowledgement of being in a same-gender relationship is sufficient cause
for a pastor to undergo ministerial review.

The ruling was praised by some groups for upholding the denomination's
prohibition against gays and lesbians being appointed in ministry. Other
groups expressed concern about the implications that the ruling could have
for the rights of sexual minorities in the church.

The executive committee of Good News applauded the Judicial Council's
decision. Good News, based in Wilmore, Ky., is a United Methodist
evangelical renewal organization, and it publishes a magazine by the same
name. 

"This decision strengthens the church's present position while assuring fair
process," said the Rev. James V. Heidinger II, president and publisher of
Good News. The decision guarantees that people who publicly acknowledge
same-gender relationships, as the Rev. Karen Dammann did in the Pacific
Northwest, "must have their ministerial relationship reviewed by the annual
conference," Heidinger said. "In that review process, she must be asked if
she were involved in sexual activity with a member of her gender, and if she
answers affirmatively, it clarifies that she is what the Discipline refers
to as a 'self-avowed practicing homosexual' and thus ineligible for
appointment.

"This ruling prohibits a bishop from declaring unilaterally that one is no
longer a 'member in good standing,' which protects all clergy from arbitrary
dismissal," Heidinger said. "At the same time, it affirms the church's
commitment to fair process as well as to the conviction that the practice of
homosexuality remains 'incompatible with Christian teaching.'"

John Stumbo, representing the Coalition for United Methodist Accountability,
found that the Judicial Council's decision agreed with the main points of a
brief that he had filed with the court. CUMA was formed in 2000 by three
conservative groups, including Good News, to enforce the denomination's Book
of Discipline. 

Now the church must wrestle with the question of how it defines "self-avowed
practicing homosexual," said Stumbo, an attorney and the mayor of Fort
Valley, Ga. That is a question that he hopes will not be left up to the
individual annual conferences but will be decided at the general church
level, he said. "We need uniformity across the church," he explained.

"It's going to take either Judicial Council or the General Conference to
bring clarity to that, and I hope it will be the Judicial Council rather
than have to wait on the General Conference," Stumbo said. The Judicial
Council meets twice yearly, whereas the General Conference, the
denomination's top legislative assembly, won't meet again until 2004.

The Parents Reconciling Network, representing United Methodist parents of
gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, expressed "cautious support"
for the ruling. "The decision, though narrow, appropriately focused on
process and not on the validity of Discipline statements regarding the
church's stance on homosexuality," the group said. 

The network "believes this action is a step in the right direction because
it honors the directive in the Discipline that gives the duty of determining
the gifts and graces of clergy to annual conferences," said Jamie Stroud of
Philadelphia, national coordinator. The decision outlines the review process
for annual conferences and rules out summary action without due process, she
said. "This process should offer a measure of protection to gay and lesbian
clergy."

The group is concerned, however, that the decision "implies that gay and
lesbian clergy should not be considered in good standing if they are
'self-avowed and practicing,' " she said. That position could divide
churches and the denomination if annual conferences react with bigotry, she
said.

The Parents Reconciling Network and the Chicago-based Reconciling Ministries
Network took aim at the United Methodist Church's advertising campaign and
its theme of "Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors. The people of the United
Methodist Church."

"The Judicial Council ruling sounds more like closed minds and closed
closets," said Marilyn Alexander, Reconciling Ministries Network executive
director. Heterosexual and "closeted" gay and lesbian clergy members will
not have their sexual behavior scrutinized, but openly gay or lesbian clergy
members will be held to different standards, the group said. Reconciling
Ministries advocates the full inclusion of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and
transgender people in the church.

United Methodists of Color for a Fully Inclusive Church also was critical,
comparing the decision to the church's "earlier failures to grapple with
issues of social justice and civil rights."

"Anyone with the most basic understanding of our denomination's history can
see what is happening," said Dan Vera, director of the Washington-based
group. "It is a repetition of the same slow dance with forces of intolerance
that brought our church to a split over slavery in 1844. Then, as now, it
was a church that looked good on paper, but whose practices were abhorrent
examples of the dominant society's prejudice."
 
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United Methodist News Service
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