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Lesbian pastor absolved after Methodist investigation

The waiting is over for the Rev. Karen Dammann -- and the news is good.

For more than a year, Dammann, a lesbian minister and former pastor of Woodland Park United Methodist Church, has stood aside while others in the United Methodist Church decided her future.

That changed Wednesday when an investigative committee of the church's Pacific Northwest Conference decided to dismiss a complaint that Dammann disobeyed church law barring "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" from being ordained or serving as pastors.

Dammann, who lives with her partner, Meredith Savage, and their 4-year-old son, Beckett, said she's happy with the decision.

She said she hasn't decided whether she will return to Seattle or stay in Massachusetts, where she fills in preaching for a United Church of Christ congregation.

The United Methodist Church forbids openly practicing homosexuals to be pastors. But pastors cannot be removed without due process, according to the Methodist Book of Discipline.

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