Jan. 14, 2004
Lesbian clergywoman will face church trial
By United Methodist News Service
A Washington state clergywoman will face a United Methodist church trial for disclosing that she is living in a "covenanted homosexual relationship."
The Rev. Karen Dammann, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Ellensburg, made the disclosure to her bishop, Elias Galvan, in 2001. The United Methodist Book of Discipline bars "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" from being ordained or serving as clergy. The book also affirms gays as people of sacred worth.
The call for a trial was approved by a 5-2 vote by the Committee on Investigation of the denomination's Pacific Northwest Annual (regional) Conference, after a Jan. 12 hearing.
The committee is finalizing the bill of charges, said the Rev. Elaine Stanovsky, conference council director and assistant to the bishop, Jan. 14.
Galvan will be working this week with district superintendents on selecting a pool of jurors for the trial court, and he will be speaking with other bishops about who might preside over the trial, Stanovsky said. "We won't know the location and date until we have a presiding officer."
In a clergy trial, a panel of 13 United Methodist pastors serves as the jury, and at least nine votes are needed to convict. The pastors are chosen from a jury pool named by the annual conference cabinet. A bishop presides over the trial. In cases of conviction, the Book of Discipline provides for a range of penalties, including loss of ministerial orders for the clergy member.
Dammann couldn't be reached for comment by deadline Jan. 14. She continues to serve her congregation in Ellensburg, about two hours east of Seattle. Both Stanovsky and the bishop have had contact with the church's members in recent months, and Stanovsky said the congregation largely supports its pastor.
"The overwhelming majority of the church is supportive of Karen's ministry and want her to continue as their pastor," Stanovsky said.
Dammann's case has followed a winding path since she informed her bishop that she was "living in a partnered, covenanted homosexual relationship." At the direction of the Judicial Council, Galvan filed a complaint against Dammann, citing "practices declared by the United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings."
The case went through the church's judicial process and reached the Judicial Council a second time last fall. The court reversed decisions by two lower church bodies - the conference committee on investigation and the Western Jurisdiction Committee on Appeals. Both of those committees had dismissed the charges against Dammann in split votes.
The court said both committees had committed "an egregious error of church law" by refusing to apply the Book of Discipline and the council's earlier decisions in the case. The Judicial Council also said that if members of the committee on investigation were "unwilling to uphold the Discipline for reasons of conscience or otherwise, such members must step aside in this matter."
The Judicial Council said it would retain jurisdiction "for the purpose of ensuring that its decision is implemented."
Following the council's ruling, one member of the committee on investigation stepped aside and was replaced by an alternate, according to Stanovsky's office. The committee met in mid-December in a closed hearing before convening again Jan. 12.
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Jan. 12, 2004
United Methodist agency joins pickle boycott
By Gretchen Hakola and Linda Bloom*
WASHINGTON (UMNS) - The United Methodist Board of Church and Society has joined a boycott of the Mt. Olive Pickle Co., based in North Carolina.
In a close vote Jan. 8, the agency's executive committee confirmed an earlier decision of the full board to participate in the boycott, which also has been endorsed by the National Council of Churches, United Church of Christ, Alliance of Baptists, American Friends Service Committee and other organizations.
"The executive committee expresses its deep appreciation to the (United Methodist) North Carolina Annual Conference for its efforts to bring the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. together," said Bishop S. Clifton Ives, board president, in a statement, "but the executive committee recognizes that significant movement toward resolution has not been made since the board cast its vote last fall, and therefore implementation of the boycott is an appropriate response."
The executive committee reiterated the ongoing concern that progress in resolving the labor dispute be made as soon as possible and asked a monitoring team to report back by July 1 as to whether conditions for the farm workers have improved.
During its General Assembly last November, the National Council of Churches voted to officially boycott both Mt. Olive Pickle and Taco Bell, the council's first boycott action in 15 years. The United Methodist Church is among the council's member denominations.
The council's action was aimed at pressuring Mt. Olive into negotiating for improved wages and working conditions for the farm workers who produce the cucumbers that Mt. Olive processes for its products.
The boycott against Taco Bell was launched in 2001 by the Coalition of Immokalee (Fla.) Workers after the company refused to address charges of exploitation in the fields of its tomato suppliers.
A Church and Society delegation, led by Bishop Joel Martinez, visited North Carolina in 2000 to investigate the situation with Mt. Olive. The company, owned by a United Methodist, produces the largest-selling brand of pickles in the Southeast. Using the denomination's "Guidelines for Initiating a Boycott," the team recommended that the agency join the boycott if Mt. Olive retaliated against a grower or failed to negotiate "in good faith" with growers and workers by March 15, 2001.
In its Jan. 8 statement, the Board of Church and Society identified several key issues to be addressed: (1) minimum standards for living and working conditions; (2) mechanisms for protection of workers; (3) ways to provide an independent voice of workers; (4) collective bargaining; and (5) registration and training of crew leaders.
The board's executive committee pledged to continue to work with the North Carolina Annual Conference, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. to resolve the dispute.
*Hakola is program director of communications at the United Methodist Board of Church and Society. Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
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Jan. 22, 2004
Indiana family celebrates birth of conjoined twins
INDIANAPOLIS (UMNS) - United Methodists "in hundreds of churches" are joining in prayers for conjoined twins Stephanie Nicole and Rebecca Marie, born to April and Rocky McCray on Jan. 20 at St. Vincent's Hospital.
The Rev. John Boyanowski and his wife, Marsha, are maternal grandparents of the babies. Boyanowski is the pastor of Pleasant Lake United Methodist Church, which the McCrays attend.
"Never underestimate God," Boyanowski said, as he, his wife and members of the church surrounded the young couple in celebrating the birth of their granddaughters.
April, 18, and Rocky, 19, learned in August they would be parents to a rare type of conjoined twins called dicephalus, which means they have separate heads. The babies are joined from the shoulder to below, and they share two legs and two normal arms. The twin's remaining arms are fused together around their heads.
The young couple named the babies as soon as they learned of their condition so they could pray for them by name. The twins were born seven and a half months into term and weighed 8 pounds, 5 ounces.
"The doctor reports are not very good," said the Rev. Larry Ray, superintendent of the Fort Wayne District, where Boyanowski serves. Ray is in continual contact with the family.
Ray reported the family is not expecting the conjoined twins to live long and has planned for no life support. "They're wanting to make a witness out of this," Ray said. "They're putting this in God's hands."
Boyanowski has kept the district updated on the progress of the babies, so Ray and the other clergy members of the Fort Wayne District have known of the pending birth for months. The district sent out requests for prayer for the families after learning of the pregnancy.
"They have hundreds praying with them all over the state and the nation," Ray said.
"April is an amazing young woman," said the Rev. Rob Barton, a family friend and pastor at Huntertown United Methodist Church. The Boyanowskis were once members of Huntertown.
"She is able to hold joy and sorrow together at the same time without falling apart," he said. "Her demeanor through this whole thing reveals an inner strength I cannot imagine an 18-year-old having."
Barton, who has visited with the family and seen the babies, said, "They are beautiful little girls."
The parents are doing well, Boyanowski said. "Their faith in God has brought them through all of this. They keep telling everyone God has a purpose for this."
As a father, he said he just stands back and watches God's grace unfold in April and Rocky's lives, as the two have experienced more than most couples do in 20 years.
"As a pastor, I stand back in awe." He baptized Stephanie and Rebecca shortly after their births. He also baptized Rocky after the couple found out their babies were conjoined.
The conjoined twins were breathing on their own as of Jan. 22, but were hooked up to feeding tubes because they were in the stage where babies learn to suck, eat and swallow.
"They're doing remarkably well. They are so amazing," Boyanowski said.
"We do have a flood of emotions," he said. "With every moment, there is good and bad.
"We want to embrace every moment with the girls. We've been holding them since they were born. We just have not put them down."
A spokesperson at the hospital reported the babies were still in critical condition. It was unclear when April would be released from the hospital, but she hoped to bring the babies home with her when she leaves.
Members of Pleasant Lake United Methodist Church, which averages 75 in attendance a week, have rallied around the family. They have encouraged Boyanowski to take as much time off as needed.
The Sunday before the babies were born, Jan. 18, the Boyanowskis were called forward by the church and presented with a love offering and keys to a van.
Pleasant Lake and Huntertown churches are planning benefit dinners and fundraisers to help with expenses for the twins. "They've surrounded us with prayer and accepted April and Rocky since the beginning," Boyanowski said.
April and Rocky live with the Boyanowskis in Fort Wayne. Furniture and baby-supply shopping will be done shortly, since the family did not know what to expect or how long the girls would survive. "We didn't know what to expect," Boyanowski said. "Now the dream is coming to reality."
When he first found out the twins were conjoined, he thought of Psalm 46, which reminds us of how God is a refuge and strength in all times, he said.
"We're seeing church congregations coming together. We're seeing families come together." Boyanowski said strangers have stopped family members to wish them well and express prayer support. "Everyone's in unison praying for two little girls," he said. "How can you not be encouraged and see how God's hand is in this?
"I know Sunday, if they're going to be home, they're going to church. We're going to live normal lives as much as we can."
Matthew Oates, North Indiana correspondent for the Indiana Area Office of the United Methodist Church, Dan Gangler, Indiana Area communications director, and United Methodist News Service writer Kathy L. Gilbert contributed to this story.
