Court upholds appointment of transsexual pastor

United Methodist News Service
SAN FRANCISCO—The United Methodist supreme court has upheld a bishop’s decision that a pastor who changed sex from female to male remains eligible to serve the church.
In considering matters related to the Rev. Drew Phoenix, pastor at St. John’s UMC, Baltimore, the Judicial Council said it wasn’t ruling on whether changing sex is a chargeable offense.
Rather, the court said in Decision 1074, “A clergy-person’s standing cannot be terminated without administrative or juridical action having occurred and all fair process being accorded.
“What matters is that clergyper-sons, once ordained and admitted to membership in full connection, cannot have that standing changed without being accorded fair process.”
Because Phoenix is a clergy member in good standing of the Baltimore Washington Conference, the ruling means he will continue to serve his Baltimore congregation.
But the issue of whether transsexual clergy members are eligible for appointment is likely to be debated when the General Conference convenes next April in Fort Worth. The United Methodist Church bars practicing homosexuals from being ordained but says nothing about transsexuals.
During the 2007 executive clergy session of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, a change of name was recorded for Phoenix. He had been the Rev. Ann Gordon, who was ordained in 1989 and had led the St. John’s congregation for five years.
Bishop John R. Schol confirmed that, following surgery and hormone therapy, the pastor had changed sex and adopted a new name.
Two requests were made for a bishop’s decision of law: one on a technical question about how to categorize the pastor’s name change for the conference’s Board of Ordained Ministry and the other on whether a transsexual person is eligible for appointment.
Schol said nothing in church polity prevents a transsexual person from serving as a pastor and that the name change was handled correctly.
In other decisions related to sexuality, the council ruled that a Minnesota Conference plan for providing health benefits for domestic partners doesn’t violate The Book of Discipline.
The council wouldn’t take jurisdiction in challenges to three Northern Illinois Conference resolutions affirming inclusiveness in the church.
The council remanded a case questioning whether Western North Carolina Conference funds were being used to promote homosexuality.
The church court upheld a bishop’s decision in the Pacific Northwest Conference that two campus ministry groups receiving conference funds weren’t part of any network that promoted homosexuality.