Believers divided on rules for clergy

Methodist finds another path
By Michael Paulson
Globe Staff / November 8, 2008

It was not just any church, but a church in Southeastern Massachusetts that she had been leading in worship while preparing for ordination in the United Methodist Church, a denomination that does not allow noncelibate gays and lesbians to be ordained.

So Britton and her wife made an uncomfortable decision: They removed their wedding rings and stuck them in a box so no one would know.

But the marriage set in motion events that led to a ceremony held earlier this month by a group opposed to the United Methodist Church's ban on gay clergy. During that ceremony, held Oct. 19 in Baltimore, the group declared Britton to be a minister "in the Method ist tradition," although not in the United Methodist Church.

The ceremony, held by a group called the Church within the Church, is the latest example of resistance by some Christians to restrictions on who can be ordained clergy in many denominations. In 1974, in the Episcopal Church, 11 women were irregularly ordained as priests; two years later, the denomination agreed to ordain women. the rest