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The four dissenting panel members said the ruling is "an improper and unjustified attempt to rewrite the clear and unambiguous meaning" of marriage in the Book of Order. The church's General Assembly will likely debate the issue this June.

UMC debates homosexuality:

• Methodists weigh gay acceptance at legislative gathering | Elected representatives are gathered in Pittsburgh for a 10-day General Conference where they decide, change and uphold church laws. (Scripps Howard News Service)
  
  
• Church court reviews gay pastor's case | The case of an openly lesbian pastor from Ellensburg who won acquittal on charges that she violated the United Methodist ban on gay pastors was before the church's top court yesterday. (Seattle Times)
  
  
• United Methodists debate gay clergy ban at conference | The United Methodist Church, America's third-largest denomination, will hold the line on its ban against gay clergy this week, said the Rev. Larry McCutcheon, superintendent for the Charleston district. (Charleston Post and Courier, SC)
  
  
• Measures on homosexuality considered | The United Methodist Church's highest judicial body and its main legislative branch are slated to take up separate measures related to controversies over homosexuality at the denomination's national meeting in Pittsburgh today. (The Courier-Journal, Louisville)
  
  
• Methodists debate homosexuality | United Methodists who advocate broader acceptance of homosexuality came to their church's national legislative meeting with low expectations. (Associated Press)
  
  

Gay marriage:

• Group urges state ban on same-sex marriages | A group of Protestant ministers, a Roman Catholic priest and a handful of legislators told a committee room overflowing with supporters Monday that Louisiana needs a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. (Baton Rouge Advocate)
  
  
• Vote on gays brings Dayton new infamy | it's pertaining to is these homosexual marriages that's going on across our country. I'd like to make a motion that those kind of people cannot live in Rhea County or abide in Rhea County. (The Tennessean)
  
  
• Senate OKs ban on gay marriage | If approved by the House, constitutional amendment will go to voters this fall (Lawrence Journal World, Kansas)
  
  
• Gay marriage ban divides clergy | While some Wichita pastors encourage congregants to push for a constitutional amendment, others choose to focus on inclusion. (The Wichita Eagle, Kansas)
  
  
• Is there a religious difference between same-sex marriages and civil unions? | Readers respond. (Washington Post)
  
  
• Hollywood Lutheran Church defies national leadership, installs gay pastor | The 100-member Hollywood Lutheran Church has installed a sexually active gay man as its pastor, defying the church's national leadership, which ordains gays and lesbians as ministers but only if they are celibate. (Associated Press)
  
  
• Hundreds in Oshkosh rally to oppose amendment banning gay marriage | Hundreds of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and others gathered Sunday for a rally to oppose a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages and civil unions. (The Green Bay News-Chronicle)
  
  
• Bible's words become instrument in gay-marriage debate | This difference in interpretation is playing out in gay-marriage debates across the country and is threatening to tear some denominations apart. (Seattle Times)
  
  

Anti-gay marriage rally in Seattle:

• Message sent from heaven? | Gay marriage leads to a total meltdown of morality in this country. The not-so-sturdy foundation of traditional marriage will be bulldozed. Divorce will rise, Social Security will fall and polygamy will spread across the land. On Saturday, that message reverberated throughout Safeco Field in Seattle (Everett Herald, Wash.)
  
  

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May (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48