Preview to the Legal Debate Around Gay Bishop

The United Methodist Church’s top court faces a number of questions about the election of the denomination’s first openly gay bishop — including whether it should weigh in at all.

The Judicial Council is set to meet April 25-28 in Newark, N.J., and leading its docket is a petition from the South Central Jurisdictional Conference asking for a ruling on questions related to the election, consecration and assignment of a bishop in a same-sex marriage.

Any decision on that petition could affect Bishop Karen Oliveto, who is legally married to a United Methodist deaconess. The U.S. Western Jurisdiction elected Bishop Oliveto in July, and she now leads the Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone conferences. However, Bishop Oliveto is not a party in the case, and the questions in the petition do not name her.

Read more at this link.