Northwest ordinance

National | RELIGION: A regional Methodist jury effectively nullified church law by acquitting an openly lesbian minister. The verdict may split the denomination | Edward E. Plowman

REBELLION AND ANARCHY. That's how some in the 8.5-million-member United Methodist Church are describing the verdict in a church trial in the UMC's largely ultra-liberal Pacific Northwest regional conference.

After deliberating for more than 10 hours at a church in suburban Seattle, a jury of clergy voted 11-0, with two abstentions, to dismiss charges against Karen Dammann, 47, a self-avowed lesbian minister on leave from her church.

The acquittal in effect nullified church law in her case. The UMC Book of Discipline requires UMC clergy to "maintain the highest standards of holy living." It goes on to say, "Since the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching, self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be accepted as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve" in the UMC. By more than a 2 to 1 margin, delegates to the last two quadrennial UMC general conferences voted to retain the language.