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May 27, 2007 3:32 pm US/Central
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Transgender Pastor's Reappointment Under Review
BALTIMORE (CBS) ―
United Methodist clergy in Baltimore are asking for the denomination's highest legal authority to review a bishop's decision to reappoint a transgender pastor to lead a city congregation.
As Jessica Kartalija reports for CBS affiliate WJZ, Bishop John R. Schol decided last week to continue the appointment of the Rev. Drew Phoenix as pastor of St. John's United Methodist Church.
Phoenix, 48, has led St. John's for nearly five years. In the past year, he changed his name from Ann Gordon and received medical treatment to become a man.
The Methodist church bans sexually active gay clergy but does not have any rules about transgender pastors.
Clergy of the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church have asked for a decision of law on whether transgendered people are eligible for appointment as pastors, said Wayne DeHart, the conference's director of human resources.
For Phoenix, making the transition from being a woman to a man has been a positive experience.
"I've always identified as male, and now have brought everything together," said Phoenix. Phoenix added, "I want to be the face of an issue."
Under church procedure, Schol would issue a decision within a month, which would be reviewed by the Judicial Council, the Methodist equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court. The council next meets in October. Its decisions are final, according to the United Methodists' Web site.
UMAction, a conservative Methodist organization, has called for the General Conference, an international Methodist body that meets next year, to develop rules on transgender pastors.
"I think instinctively most church people would say there are some theological problems with gender change, but they don't know how to articulate the arguments, and expect the church to offer a teaching on the subject," UMAction director Mark Tooley said.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)