Gay Methodists to Defy Court Ruling

CAMPBELL, Calif. — Defying a recent ruling by their denomination's highest court, two United Methodist Church leaders will celebrate their 15-year lesbian relationship with a service of holy union early next year.

The partners are Jeanne Barnett, a lay official with the church's California-Nevada region, and Ellie Charlton, a member of the regional board of trustees. Their pastor, the Rev. Don Fado of St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Sacramento, is inviting fellow clergy to participate as an act of "ecclesial disobedience." United Methodist News Service reported 67 ministers have agreed to join.

Last August, the church's national Judicial Council ruled that the ban on same-sex ceremonies in the Methodist "Social Principles" is binding church law. That ruling overturned a lower court's acquittal of the Rev. Jimmy Creech of Omaha, who had performed such a ceremony last year.