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June 18, 1999

'Sacramento 68' investigation will likely be long, official says

By United Methodist News Service

The committee in charge of investigating a complaint against 68 California-Nevada United Methodist ministers has scheduled meetings into September, but the process will likely go beyond then, according to the panel's chairman.

"This will probably be a long process, as we see it," said the Rev. RonSwisher, head of the committee on investigation and pastor of Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church in Oakland, Calif.

At its first meeting, June 15, the committee officially received the complaint against the ministers. The clergy members are accused of violating the order and discipline of the United Methodist Church by participating in a same-sex union service for two women in Sacramento, Calif., on Jan. 16. The denomination's Book of Discipline states that services celebrating homosexual unions shall not be conducted by United Methodist ministers nor held in United Methodist churches.

Bishop Melvin G. Talbert, head of the United Methodist Church's California-Nevada Annual (regional) Conference, announced in March that the complaint had been filed against the clergy members. At the same time, Talbert reiterated his own opposition to the church's strictures against same-sex services.

The complaint against the "Sacramento 68," as they're now called, was passed on to the conference's church counsel, the Rev. Paul Wiberg of Orinda, Calif. Wiberg then sent the case to Swisher, who brought it before the committee. The investigative panel will look into the matter, hold a hearing at some point, and then decide whether the complaint should be converted into a charge.

If that happens, the next step would be a church trial, in which the respondents would be judged by a trial court of 13 fellow clergy members. A guilty verdict in a church trial could lead to penalties ranging up to loss of ministerial orders. At any point during the process, however, resolution can be reached with a respondent and a church trial avoided.

The committee comprises seven clergy members, three lay members and four alternates. Only the seven clergy members can vote, and the rest of the members give their input, Swisher said.

The committee sets its own timetable for handling the complaint. Initial meetings will be July 25, Aug. 24 and Sept. 14, Swisher said.

During the week of June 21, he will send a letter of complaint to each of the respondents, as required by denomination guidelines.

"They have 30 days after that to respond," he said. "With 68 ministers, that's going to take a little while." He doubts all the responses will be received by the July meeting, but the committee will probably have more in hand by the time it meets in August.

"Each individual has a right to have a hearing," Swisher said. "Some might go as a group, which would probably help, but we don't know at this point what each one is going to do."

The respondents themselves have a variety of viewpoints, according to the Rev. Don Fado, the pastor who organized the January ceremony. Fado leads St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Sacramento. "We're not in lockstep thinking.

"As an individual, I hope that we will be able to be in solidarity," Fado said. "That will be my preference.

"I think it's impossible to have 68 separate trials," he said, noting that would take years. "Our intent is not to break the system down. We don't want to do that."

Having 68 ministers go through the process together would be unprecedented in the United Methodist Church. Even clergy trials have been relatively rare, but the denomination has had two high-profile cases since last year. The Rev. Jimmy Creech, then-pastor of First United Methodist Church of Omaha, Neb., was acquitted in a March 1998 trial of violating denomination law for performing a same-sex service. At the time, there was some confusion about the status of church prohibitions against such unions, and the United Methodist Judicial Council later clarified church law on that point. As a result, the Rev. Greg Dell of Broadway United Methodist Church in Chicago was convicted last March of a similar charge. He is appealing.

Given the amount of work ahead, church counsel Wiberg said he expects the investigative process for the Sacramento case to be time-consuming.

"I don't have a timetable in mind," he said. "I think it's important that the committee take what time it needs to do a conscientious and thorough job."

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New York, and Washington.