Excepts From Seattle Times July 26, 2002:
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Rev.
Karen Dammann (right)
and her lesbian lover (left) |
The Seattle Times Local News Gay pastor won't face Methodist church
trial
- In another decision that puts the Pacific Northwest Conference of the
United Methodist Church at odds with the larger church, an investigative
committee of the conference has dismissed a complaint against the , a
lesbian minister accused of violating church law prohibiting "self-avowed,
practicing homosexuals" from being ordained or serving as pastors.
- That means Dammann, who had served as pastor at Seattle's Woodland
Park United Methodist Church, remains a minister in good standing and
won't have to face church trial.
- Dammann's case comes on the heels of another high-profile case
involving the Rev. Mark Williams, Dammann's successor at Woodland Park and
the denomination's only openly gay minister serving a congregation. In
May, the conference dismissed a complaint that Williams had violated
church law, saying it had insufficient evidence to prove that Williams was
sexually active with someone of the same gender.
- The United Methodist Church, the nation's second-largest Protestant
denomination, says it commits to the ministry of all people, but church
doctrine also says homosexuality is "incompatible with Christian
teaching."
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