United Methodist pastor will face church trial for being a "self-avowed practicing homosexual."
United Methodist pastor Anna Blaedel will face a church trial for “practices declared by the United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings, including . . . being a self-avowed practicing homosexual.”
Blaedel has faced several complaints after announcing at the 2016 Iowa Conference: “I am a self-avowed practicing homosexual.” Blaedel resigned as director of the Wesley Center at the University of Iowa last April during Holy Week.
The original complaint against Blaedel was raised by John Lomperis, based in Chicago, who serves as United Methodist director at the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C. The institute is a member of the Renewal and Reform Coalition in the United Methodist Church, which has lobbied for maintaining church bans on ordaining gay clergy and same-sex marriage.
