Methodists take small step towards 21st Century -- Final End

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Date Posted: 22:51:15 05/31/02 Fri
Author: Drummond
Subject: Methodists take small step towards 21st Century

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/72715_minister31.shtml

The Seattle United Methodist pastor who last year became the faith's only openly gay ordained minister to serve a congregation will not face a church trial for his homosexuality and will remain in the pulpit.

The Rev. Mark Edward Williams, who announced his homosexuality at a regional church conference, faced a formal complaint that had the potential to strip him of his ordination.

But the United Methodist version of a grand jury, called an investigating committee, yesterday determined there was insufficient evidence to file formal charges and proceed to trial....

The investigating committee's decision cannot be appealed; yesterday's decision is final.

The United Methodist Church, the nation's third-largest denomination with 8.4 million U.S. members, has struggled publicly with the issue of homosexuality since 1972, when the General Conference declared homosexuals "persons of sacred worth" but found homosexuality "incompatible with Christian teaching."

The church prohibits "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" from being ordained or appointed as pastors. Two years ago, the national United Methodist Church debated, then retained, the denomination's prohibition.

In essence, the investigating committee ruled yesterday that simply admitting to being homosexual is not enough to remove a minister from the pulpit without evidence that the clergy person is sexually active with another person of the same sex.

"The complaint alleged that a statement Reverend Williams read into the record of the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference on June 15, 2001, constituted a 'statement of homosexual practice' incompatible with the United Methodist Book of Discipline's standards for clergy," the committee said in a released statement.

The committee did not find "reasonable cause" in that statement alone to forward the matter to a church trial.

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Re: Methodists take small step towards 21st Century -- sue da babe, 11:00:52 06/02/02 Sun