Blaedel hearing
Supporters of the Rev. Anna Blaedel demonstrate outside a hearing by the Committee on Investigation of the Iowa Annual Conference Aug. 8. (UMForward Photo. Used by Permission)
Sometime early next week, the Rev. Anna Blaedel will learn their fate as a United Methodist clergywoman – for the third time – as a conference committee weighs whether to forward a complaint against Rev. Blaedel for further action.
Rev. Blaedel faced the Iowa Annual Conference Investigating Committee on Aug. 8 after a complaint was brought by John Lomperis, a United Methodist layman from Indiana. Mr. Lomperis filed the complaint against Rev. Blaedel as a "self-avowed, practicing homosexual" who is ineligible to serve as a United Methodist ordained elder. Rev. Blaedel recently resigned as director of the Wesley Foundation at the University of Iowa rather than subject the ministry to the stresses of a possible church trial, according to their departure announcement.
The Iowa Annual Conference's Committee on Investigations is required to give its recommendation on the complaint within five days of the Aug. 8 hearing.
Anna Blaedel
The Rev. Anna Blaedel. (Photo courtesy of enfleshed)
Prior to the hearing, the committee took the unusual step of issuing a press release on the proceedings. Investigations into complaints against clergy typically are kept confidential unless a clergy trial is held. The committee stressed that the hearing was solely to determine whether Mr. Lomperis's complaint is legitimate and what course of action to recommend. If the complaint is found valid, Rev. Blaedel could face discipline ranging from a negotiated "just resolution" to a full-blown trial and the removal of their ordination.
Mr. Lomperis serves as director of United Methodist activities for the ultra-conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy. A lay delegate to the 2019 General Conference from the Indiana Annual Conference, he apparently brought his complaint according to the increased penalties found in the Traditional Plan adopted last February in St. Louis, Mo. However, those provisions don't go into effect for the church until Jan. 1, 2020.
The Rev. Tyler Schwaller, Rev. Blaedel's clergy counsel at the close hearing, underscored the emotional nature of Rev. Blaedel facing another complaint after two previous complaints had been been resolved. He challenged the committee that "your duty is not to determine whether grounds exist to support the charge, but whether there are reasonable grounds.
"Is the charge reasonable when it plays out a highly politicized, public debate on the life and ministry of one person, as if Anna Blaedel bears unique and singular responsibility for resolving an issue this church and this conference have failed for decades to address with mercy and grace?
"Is the charge reasonable when, in fact, a two-thirds supermajority of this very conference voted only two months ago to reject the increasingly punitive actions of the church against queer and trans persons and to insist that all ministry priorities be funded before expending any further resources on complaints and trials?
"Is the charge reasonable when the church has known for 17 years that Anna is queer and has seen fit to commission, ordain, and annually appoint Anna to ministries in this conference, only now to go back on its word of affirmation and support?
"Is the charge reasonable when Anna has been subjected to repeated complaints, undermining their life, livelihood, and ministry, for consistently bearing witness to the truth, while the church has acted capriciously, proclaiming duplicitous, contradictory commitments to do no harm while still upholding the Discipline’s unjust laws?
"Is the charge reasonable when we profess to follow a Teacher-Savior-Healer who prioritized grace over the law, who proclaimed a vision of justice whereby the basis for accountability would not be how well we uphold a set of policies but, instead, how well we care for the vulnerable and oppressed, restoring life-giving and life-sustaining relations among God’s people?"
"... What have we become? Is any of this reasonable?"
In their closing remarks, Rev. Blaedel said that rather than "plead my case" they would devote their time "to bear witness to, and offer my deepest gratitude and love, for those who give life, and make life livable, when forces of violence, domination, and evil rage." They included Rev. Schwaller, family, friends and a host of those "deemed incompatible, unworthy, illegal, indecent, undocumented, perverted, divisive, strange. In every place, and throughout all of time ...." Then they said:
"These complaints and charges make a mockery of the Gospel, inflict harm, and are building a church predicated on purging, persecuting, and prosecuting queer and trans faithful. If you do not want this to be true, if this is not what you want to help build, then you bear a responsibility to do it differently, and take thou authority, too."
Rev. Schwaller's and Rev. Blaedel's comments were posted publicly on the Facebook page of UM Forward, an ad hoc organization devoted to full inclusion of LGBTQIA people in The United Methodist Church.
A search for comments from the complainant, John Lomperis, found no similar postings on Facebook, Twitter or the IRD website.
*Pronouns referring to Rev. Blaedel have been changed to reflect their gender preference.
UM Forward Response: Let the Yes Be a Yes
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.