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Final arguments in the United Methodist Church trial of the Rev. Karen Dammann were made this morning, with a lawyer for the church reminding jurors that as ordained pastors they are trained to make hard calls and must find Dammann guilty, while Dammann's lawyer told them they must take action now, do what is right, and acquit her.
The world is "listening and watching," Dammann's attorney, the Rev. Robert Ward, said. "I just want you to know that prolonged injustice becomes another source of encouragement to those who want to hurt and hate homosexual persons. It's time to say yes to what is right."

The Rev. James Finkbeiner, representing the United Methodist Church, said, "Your charge is not to rewrite the law, but to decide if the law has been violated. Clearly it has."

At issue is whether the 47-year-old Dammann, who was ordained in the United Methodist Church in 1991, has violated the church's Book of Discipline by engaging in homosexual practices. A lesbian, Dammann lives with her partner, Meredith Savage, with whom she is raising a child.

Three years ago, Dammann came out in a letter to her bishop, disclosing that she was an open, practicing lesbian, and asked that her next appointment be as a pastor at a church "with everyone understanding who and what I am."

Her rare public church trial, which is drawing national attention, began Wednesday in the crowded fellowship hall of Bothell United Methodist Church.

A jury of 13 United Methodist clergy from around the Pacific Northwest will decide Dammann's fate. Their decision not only will set precedent within a denomination sorely conflicted over its tenets regarding homosexuals, but will draw scrutiny from Christian denominations nationwide struggling with the same issue.

With an estimated membership of between 8 million and 10 million, the United Methodist Church is the third-largest Christian church in the United States, after Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists.

Dammann served as pastor of Seattle's Woodland Park United Methodist Church for three years until 1999 and more recently in Ellensburg. She is currently on a family leave of absence.

Raised Catholic, Dammann wanted to be ordained, but the denomination forbids female priests, so she joined the United Methodist Church. It forbids practicing homosexuals from being ordained and serving as ministers.

"I was very struck with the great conflict within her," the Rev. Jim Davis testified yesterday. He's chaplain at the University of Puget Sound and an early mentor of Dammann, when she was a practicing Catholic. "She loved her church, but she loved more the call she heard to ordained ministry."




Yesterday Bishop Elias Galvan confirmed that Dammann revealed to him in the letter that she was a self-avowed practicing homosexual, and in a later statement said her relationship involved sexual contact.

Galvan, the prosecution's one and only witness, did not offer a law on Dammann's declaration, but did say that although he personally does not agree with everything in the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, he's obligated to follow the opinion of the general church body.

The bishop said Dammann's declarations spurred him to seek guidance from the church judicial counsel, which in turn directed him to file a complaint. That complaint — after several reviews by church panels — finally resulted in this week's trial.

According to the Book of Discipline, the most serious possible penalty is to strip her of her ministry. Church law also says the trial court may impose lesser penalties, but does not specify what those penalties are, leaving it up to the court to determine.

Most of yesterday was dominated by the defense team's strategy to establish the Book of Discipline's language on homosexuality as difficult to interpret and, perhaps, not even valid.

At one point, retired Bishop Jack Tuell of Des Moines, a leading expert on church law, and a defense witness, told the jury that after an exhaustive study of the Book of Discipline, he wasn't sure if the United Methodist Church had ever really declared that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with church teachings.

Indeed, church law on homosexuality is impossible to enforce, said Dammann's attorney, Lindsay Thompson.

Officials have no way of knowing which clergy are homosexual and aren't allowed to ask, he said.

Other witnesses for Dammann lauded her character, dedication and competency as a minister.

Davis, the U.P.S. chaplain, described knowing her years ago. After she shared her desire to be ordained, despite the Catholic's prohibition against female priests, he said, he urged her to talk to ordained women in the Presbyterian and Methodist churches, which led her to join the United Methodists.

It wasn't until after her ordination as a Methodist minister that Dammann came to understand she was a lesbian, Dammann said at a brief news conference during a break in the trial yesterday.

She has said that when she was first appointed pastor of Woodland Park, she lived in a "don't ask, don't tell" world. Though she and Savage had made a spiritual commitment to each other and shared a house, they kept the nature of their relationship private.

That secrecy grew unbearable, she said, after Savage gave birth to a child, whom Dammann adopted.

She asked the church for a routine parental leave to care for her family. Eventually, she finished out the appointment year and then took another leave. During that time she wrote the letter to Galvan, disclosing her homosexuality.

Yesterday, the bishop who ordained her, Cal McConnell, testified about his sadness that the church was willing to allow him to be a minister, but not Dammann.

"I think the call of God to ministry doesn't take your sexual preference into account," said McConnell.