Methodists could face split on gay clergy

PITTSBURGH -- The United Methodist Church began a special meeting yesterday that will look at whether homosexuality is compatible with church teachings, even as the issue threatens to tear apart this third-largest US Christian denomination.

Just as the Episcopal Church struggles to hold together after the consecration of its first openly gay bishop, the United Methodist Church faces a possible schism over a decision to allow the Rev. Karen Dammann, a lesbian from Washington state, to remain a minister despite a church ban on gay clergy. At this year's conference in Pittsburgh, some 1,000 Methodist delegates will consider whether to replace the so-called "incompatibility clause" with more inclusive language.

But resistance may be stiff from delegates representing conservative to moderate regions who are expected to dominate the meeting. The Confessing Movement, a conservative faction of the United Methodist Church that has 600,000 supporters, has called the Dammann verdict "schismatic" and said the Pacific Northwest Conference -- which acquitted her -- had gone its own way.