Houston, USA - A rural Virginia minister placed on leave for denying a gay parishioner membership in his church last winter will be reinstated, a Methodist court has ruled.
Following a three-day meeting in Houston, the Judicial Council _ the Methodist equivalent of the Supreme Court _ decided Monday that the Rev. Edward Johnson was within his ministerial rights when he denied membership to the would-be parishioner in December. Johnson declined comment on the ruling.
A Virginia Conference cabinet will meet next week to pick a new assignment for the minister, formerly of South Hill United Methodist Church.
Under the denomination's Book of Discipline, the church bars non-celibate gays from ordination, but does not explicitly prohibit them from becoming congregants.
In June, officials with the Methodist Virginia Conference used that interpretation in determining Johnson had erred in denying membership to a homosexual. Johnson argued church discipline granted pastors individual discretion in such matters. The high court agreed.
Three members of the national council wrote that they worried the judgment compromised the church's image, contradicting the denomination's motto: "Open hearts, open minds, open doors."