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The Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church ruled yesterday that active homosexuals, as determined by a church court, may not serve in pastoral leadership within the United Methodist Church.

In March, Karen Dammann was acquitted by a Washington state church jury on charges that she was in violation of the denomination's laws regarding homosexual practice. Acknowledging that it cannot reverse or reexamine the jury's findings, the Judicial Council, the denomination's supreme court, said "a bishop may not appoint one who has been found by a trial court to be a self-avowed, practicing homosexual."

Conservatives believe that while Dammann could retain her standing as a Methodist clergywoman, she could never receive an appointment to church leadership. Scott Field, board chairperson for the evangelical renewal group Good News, said Dammann is ineligible to serve in parish ministry. "I think she will not be appointable," Field told the Associated Press. "It's not a bell-ringer, but it was a good decision."

The Bishop of the Western Jurisdiction, who oversees the Pacific-Northwest Annual (regional) Conference, may be prohibited from appointing Dammann to a pastoral post. Dammann, who is on family leave, would have been eligible for reappointment in June.

Dammann has not said whether she will request a reappointment.

The Judicial Council ruling was read aloud to nearly 1,000 delegates during the United Methodist General Conference. It is the denomination's top legislative body, representing 10 million members worldwide, meeting in Pittsburgh. The conference, which convenes every four years, sets the policy and direction for global Methodism. The church has 8.3 million members in the United States.

Yesterday's ruling came in response to a series of requests from General Conference delegates to clarify the application of statements in the denomination's governing text, the Book of Discipline, that pertain to homosexual practice. The church jury that acquitted Dammann determined that she was "a self-avowed, practicing homosexual," but it did not believe that the statements in question represented a definitive declaration of the church.

However, on Saturday the Judicial Council, in response to the delegates' request, declared that Book of Discipline paragraph 304.3, which states the "practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching," is indeed a proclamation of the church—equivalent to church law—and that homosexual practice among clergy is a chargeable offense.

In a related decision, the General Conference voted yesterday to maintain its position that the practice of homosexuality is "incompatible with Christian teaching." It strengthened the stand with an additional prohibition. Evangelical leaders hailed the actions as a "victory for the Church."

After more than an hour of intense, emotional debate, with pro-gay observers holding hands and standing in silent protest, the legislative body voted 579-376 to reaffirm the church's stand against homosexual practice and added a revised phrase: "The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality" to Paragraph 304.3 in the Book of Discipline.

"The conference found its voice today," said Field, senior pastor of Wheatland-Salem United Methodist Church in Wheatland-Salem, Illinois. "The decision strongly reaffirms our standards … and strengthens them in some ways."

The vote may have helped prevent a schism within the United Methodist Church, according to Eddie Fox, world director of evangelism for the World Methodist Council.

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May (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48