Monday, October 27, 2003
Judicial Council sends Gay Pastor Case Back to Committee
By Joretta Purdue*

SAN DIEGO (UMNS) – The United Methodist Church's supreme court
has sent a case involving an openly gay clergywoman back to an
appellate committee, with instructions for that group to follow the
denomination's Book of Discipline.

The case involves the Rev. Karen Dammann, a member of the Pacific
Northwest Annual (regional) Conference, who told Bishop Elias Galvan
in a February 2001 letter that she was living in a "partnered,
covenanted, homosexual relationship."

The United Methodist Judicial Council, meeting Oct. 22-24, said the
rules in the Book of Discipline must be upheld throughout the
church's judicial process. The book forbids the ordination and
appointment of self-avowed practicing homosexuals.

"Where the agreed facts concede a practice which the Discipline
declares to be incompatible with Christian teaching, reasonable
grounds exist to bring a bill of charges and specifications, and it
is an egregious error of church law not to bring such a bill of
charges and specifications," the council said.

The council's decision reversed an earlier decision by the Western
Jurisdiction Committee on Appeals and set aside the Pacific Northwest
Annual Conference Committee on Investigation's vote not to certify a
bill of charges in the case of the Rev. Karen Dammann. The case was
remanded to the appellate committee with instructions that it be sent
back to the conference committee on investigation for a new hearing.

Bishop Elias G. Galvan, resident bishop of the Pacific Northwest
Annual Conference, where Dammann is a clergy member, filed a
complaint against Dammann based on the letter she wrote to him in
2001. In her letter, Dammann asked to return from family leave to
active ministry.

A July 24, 2002, hearing before the conference committee on
investigation didn't produce the five votes necessary to bring
charges. Likewise, the jurisdictional committee on appeals was split
too narrowly to overrule the conference committee.

Judicial Council member Sally Curtis AsKew added a concurring opinion
in which she said that while she agreed that the decision reflects
current church law in the Book of Discipline, she felt it necessary
to state "that I do disagree with the pronouncements on homosexuality
contained in our present Discipline."

No dissenting opinion was issued by the eight council members
present. A ninth, Sally Geis, remained at home following surgery.

The Judicial Council held oral hearings on this matter and on two
docket items from the California-Pacific Annual Conference.

Several items from that annual conference concerned the
administrative and judicial processes affecting clergy. In one of
these, the council said that a written request by district
superintendents – to put a clergyperson on involuntary leave
– does not constitute a complaint that would activate either
process.

In a related item, the council ruled that at the start of the
supervisory process, a respondent has the right to seek and keep a
copy of the complaint against him or her and any supporting material.
Two people from the California-Pacific Annual Conference expressed
their understandings about both these issues in oral hearings before
the council deliberated.

Another related request was decided as follows: "Where administrative
or judicial proceedings are pending, a clergyperson has the right to
select, and when warranted change, his or her advocate. All persons
involved in administrative or judicial proceedings are bound by
confidentiality."

A fourth item from the same conference related to the rights
of "local pastors," a group of clergy whose ministerial credentials
are tied to the charge where they are appointed. The item was
deferred to the council's spring session, which will be at the site
of General Conference in Pittsburgh.

In a declaratory decision, the council advised the East Ohio Annual
Conference that the Discipline allows local pastors to become elders
without having a bachelor's degree if they meet all other
requirements. Local pastors have specific educational requirements
set forth in Paragraph 315.6 of the 2000 Book of Discipline, the
council said. They do not need to complete a bachelor's degree to
become probationary members and be commissioned in the annual
conference.

Kansas West Annual Conference had asked about the legality of a plan
the conference adopted to compensate women pastors for past gender-
based inequities. While the council saw no illegality in the concept,
the conference was directed to amend the plan to take into account
individual performance. The amended plan must have the council's
approval before it can go into effect.

Several docket items grew out of bishops' decisions of law in the
various annual conferences. When bishops respond to questions about
church law during the annual conference sessions, their decisions
automatically go to the Judicial Council for review.

The council affirmed Bishop J. Lawrence McCleskey's decision that a
question about applying the church's open meeting rule to the clergy
session of the South Carolina Annual Conference was improper because
it was not germane to the deliberation of a specific conference
action.

In a West Michigan Annual Conference matter, the council told Bishop
Linda Lee that she had no authority to remove or renominate people on
the conference board of ordained ministry during the term for which
they were elected. A pastor while under suspension continues to serve
on the board because the Discipline does not provide for removal, the
council decided.

The council agreed with Bishop Jonathan Keaton that the East Ohio
Annual Conference has the authority to redesignate its Pension
Reserve Account as the Conference Pension and Health Reserve Account,
but the court said the conference must first fund its pre-1982 past
service account (for clergy with service prior to 1982) to meet the
donor intent of the 1988-92 fund campaign, the proceeds of which were
placed in the reserve account.

The council affirmed Bishop Sharon A. Brown Christopher's decision of
law that the Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference housing policy
for conference staff does not violate the church's constitution and
laws.

The council also affirmed Bishop Susan W. Hassinger's decision, in
the New England Annual Conference, that a purported question of law
from the board of the Houlton (Maine) United Methodist Church was
moot and hypothetical, and not to be answered, because it did not
pertain to the business of the annual conference session.

The East Ohio Annual Conference Sexual Ethics Policy for Clergy was
found to be in compliance as passed at the 2003 conference session,
and the conference received permission for implementation.

In another docket item from the Western New York annual Conference,
the council noted that it does not have jurisdiction because the
matter was not a question of law but pertained to a parliamentary
procedure.

*Purdue is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in
Washington. News media can contact her at (202) 546-8722.