Holsinger not to participate in top court?s meeting
A UMNS Report
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
Oct. 23, 2007
James W. Holsinger Jr., president of the United Methodist Judicial
Council and President George W. Bush’s nominee for U.S. Surgeon General,
has decided to not participate in the council’s Oct. 24-27 meeting.
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James W. Holsinger Jr
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In a statement issued Oct. 23, Holsinger said he is concerned his
nomination could become an “unnecessary and unproductive distraction.”
The Judicial Council, the denomination’s top court, will be meeting
in San Francisco. Among issues to be addressed will be the case of a
pastor who switched gender from female to male.
“As is always the case, members of the Council will travel thousands
of miles to attend this meeting and have spent untold hours studying and
praying in preparation,” the statement said. “In order to maintain the
integrity of the proceedings of the Judicial Council and in order for
Council members to focus solely on the cases in front of them, I have
chosen not to participate in the meeting.”
Holsinger said he remains dedicated and humbled by his election to the council in 2000 and believes in its mission.
“While I remain dedicated to fulfilling the role to which I was
elected, I believe this is a time in which my service to the Council can
best be demonstrated by my absence.”
Bush nominated Holsinger to serve as the 18th surgeon general on May
24. He testified before a Senate committee in July and came under fire
for a 1991 paper he wrote on homosexuality. He has said the paper was
written for a denominational committee and does not reflect his position
today.
Holsinger, 68, a professor of preventative medicine at the University
of Kentucky and a former leader of that state’s health care system, has
been active at all levels of The United Methodist Church. Gay and
lesbian groups and others have criticized the council’s
homosexuality-related decisions as well as his 1991 paper.
The transgender case before the Judicial Council involves a clergy
member of the denomination’s Baltimore-Washington Annual (regional)
Conference.
When the conference met in late May, Bishop John R. Schol reappointed
the Rev. Drew Phoenix as pastor of St. John’s United Methodist Church
in Baltimore. Phoenix, 48, had been minister at St. John’s for five
years as the Rev. Ann Gordon. After surgery and hormone therapy in the
past year, the pastor changed his gender to male and adopted a new name.
“My transition to live fully as the male I know myself to be is very
personal and deeply spiritual,” Phoenix told the annual conference. “As I
continue to transition, to fully claim myself as a male, I find myself
coming home to the child God created me to be. I find myself joyful,
whole and peaceful. And I find myself even more effective as a pastor.”
In his ruling, Schol wrote, “There are no paragraphs in the 2004
Book of Discipline that prevent transgender clergy from serving in
an appointment.”
Though The United Methodist Church bars self-avowed practicing gay
clergy from appointment and does not support gay unions, the Book of
Discipline says nothing about transgender clergy.
*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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