United Methodists rethink status of gay Seattle pastors

The Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — More than a year after the legislative body of the United Methodist Church voted against accepting gay pastors, the denomination’s supreme court reconsidered the issue Thursday.

A decision by the nine-member Judicial Council, expected by tomorrow, could have sweeping implications for the denomination.

The council, meeting in Nashville through Saturday, heard oral arguments involving three Seattle pastors denied ministerial appointments by their local bishop after revealing their homosexuality.

Bishop Elias Galvan is seeking judicial guidance on two conflicting church laws — one that forbids ordination of homosexuals and the other requiring that all pastors in good standing receive appointments. The three gay pastors were regarded as having good standing with their local United Methodist conference.

But Susan Griffin, an attorney representing the Rev. Karen Dammann, said the issue is more about whether the United Methodist Church will give gay pastors the same rights, hearings and due process that it gives heterosexual pastors facing removal from the ministry.

"The delegates to the general conference may have decided that we are not to be an inclusive church, but this body can at least demonstrate that we are at least a fair one," Griffin told the council.

The Rev. Mark Williams, another gay pastor denied an appointment, argued he should have been allowed to go through established procedures for determining if he had broken church law and was therefore no longer a minister in good standing.

"What instead has happened is that the bishop has made a decision that … I and those like me … are outside good standing and he is no longer obligated to honor our rights," said Williams, 31.

Also appearing before the council was John Olson, a member of Williams’ Woodland Park Methodist Church in Seattle, who declared Williams is in good standing with his congregation.

"We earnestly pray that (at) the conclusion of this process … he is returned to us as our pastor," Olson said.

Opposing arguments were among 13 briefs submitted to the council, but none of those parties asked to give oral arguments on Thursday, said council member Sally Curtis AsKew, who serves as the body’s secretary.

John Stumbo, a layman and the mayor of Fort Valley, Ga., filed a brief on behalf of the Coalition for United Methodist Accountability, a group that works to enforce church law, arguing that the two laws in question are not contradictory.

"The predicate for entitlement to an appointment is you must be in good standing," Stumbo said. "In my view, if you violate the self-avowed practicing paragraph, you are not in good standing."

Even so, Stumbo said the processes for stripping ministerial credentials should be followed through established church courts.

The denomination’s Pacific Northwest Conference, which includes Washington and northern Idaho, has been this year’s hot spot in the United Methodist Church’s struggle over issues related to homosexuality.

Williams and the Rev. Katie Ladd, also a Seattle pastor, announced during the jurisdiction’s annual conference in June that they are practicing homosexuals. Dammann, who was on family leave from the ministry, declared her sexual preference in February when asking Galvan for a church appointment.

Their disclosures came one year after United Methodists banned homosexual ordination of clergy and same-sex marriages at their general conference, which meets every four years and sets policy for the denomination.

The United Methodist Church, the nation’s third-largest denomination with 8.4 million U.S. members, has struggled publicly with the issue since 1972 when the general conference declared homosexuals "persons of sacred worth" but found homosexuality "incompatible with Christian teaching."

On the Net: United Methodist Church: www.umc.org