Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Lesbian Clergywoman Will Face Church Trial
By United Methodist News Service

A Washington state clergywoman will face a United Methodist church
trial for disclosing that she is living in a "covenanted homosexual
relationship."

The Rev. Karen Dammann, pastor of First United Methodist Church of
Ellensburg, made the disclosure to her bishop, Elias Galvan, in 2001.
The United Methodist Book of Discipline bars "self-avowed practicing
homosexuals" from being ordained or serving as clergy. The book also
affirms gays as people of sacred worth.

The call for a trial was approved by a 5-2 vote by the Committee on
Investigation of the denomination's Pacific Northwest Annual
(regional) Conference, after a Jan. 12 hearing.

The committee is finalizing the bill of charges, said the Rev. Elaine
Stanovsky, conference council director and assistant to the bishop,
Jan. 14.

Galvan will be working this week with district superintendents on
selecting a pool of jurors for the trial court, and he will be
speaking with other bishops about who might preside over the trial,
Stanovsky said. "We won't know the location and date until we have a
presiding officer."

In a clergy trial, a panel of 13 United Methodist pastors serves as
the jury, and at least nine votes are needed to convict. The pastors
are chosen from a jury pool named by the annual conference cabinet. A
bishop presides over the trial. In cases of conviction, the Book of
Discipline provides for a range of penalties, including loss of
ministerial orders for the clergy member.

Dammann couldn't be reached for comment by deadline Jan. 14. She
continues to serve her congregation in Ellensburg, about two hours
east of Seattle. Both Stanovsky and the bishop have had contact with
the church's members in recent months, and Stanovsky said the
congregation largely supports its pastor.

"The overwhelming majority of the church is supportive of Karen's
ministry and want her to continue as their pastor," Stanovsky said.

Dammann's case has followed a winding path since she informed her
bishop that she was "living in a partnered, covenanted homosexual
relationship." At the direction of the Judicial Council, Galvan filed
a complaint against Dammann, citing "practices declared by the United
Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings."

The case went through the church's judicial process and reached the
Judicial Council a second time last fall. The court reversed
decisions by two lower church bodies - the conference committee on
investigation and the Western Jurisdiction Committee on Appeals. Both
of those committees had dismissed the charges against Dammann in
split votes.

The court said both committees had committed "an egregious error of
church law" by refusing to apply the Book of Discipline and the
council's earlier decisions in the case. The Judicial Council also
said that if members of the committee on investigation
were "unwilling to uphold the Discipline for reasons of conscience or
otherwise, such members must step aside in this matter."

The Judicial Council said it would retain jurisdiction "for the
purpose of ensuring that its decision is implemented."

Following the council's ruling, one member of the committee on
investigation stepped aside and was replaced by an alternate,
according to Stanovsky's office. The committee met in mid-December in
a closed hearing before convening again Jan. 12.