The Change Mariner

Minister faces trial, ouster for being lesbian

Gay.com

As the Anglican world waits and watches for the consecration of openly gay Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson on Sunday, the Methodist Church has all but ordered a church trial for an openly lesbian minister.

According to the Washington Post, the Methodists' highest court has ruled that Karen Dammann should undergo a new investigation, and that church officials may not simply ignore church law in determining her fate. The decision by the eight-member Judicial Council, which met Oct. 22-24, means that Dammann will almost certainly face a church trial, and will likely lose her credentials as a Methodist minister. Two lower church investigative committees had declined to press charges against Dammann, who is presently serving the congregation of the First United Methodist Church in Ellensburg, Wash.

Dammann's brush with Methodist law began in February of 2001, when she came out of the closet in a letter to Seattle Bishop Elias Galvan. Dammann, 46, who was on leave from the pulpit of a Seattle church at the time, determined that she could no longer disavow her life partner and their three-year-old son, asking Galvan to reinstate her with full knowledge of her family and her life.

Instead, Galvan filed an official complaint, noting that Dammann's confession was a violation of the Methodist Book of Discipline, which bans "practicing" gay and lesbian clergy. But after surviving hearings last year before the Pacific Northwest Committee on Investigation and the Western Jurisdiction Committee on Appeals, Dammann ran out of luck before the top court last week.

Posted by Norm M. Wada at October 28, 2003 11:02 PM | TrackBack
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