BOTHELL, Wash.-The United Methodist Church is trying the Rev. Karen Dammann for openly declaring her lesbian relationship. The New York Times reports that Dammann is charged with violating church law by living in a homosexual relationship, which the United Methodist Church law says is "incompatible with Christian teachings."

The judge is a retired bishop, the jurors 13 of her fellow ministers. But many of the church's clerics and members disagree with the church law. Dammann's defense lawyer said he would use Scripture and the church's own Book of Discipline to argue against her prosecution.

The lawyer, the Rev. Robert C. Ward, a retired minister from Tacoma, commended Dammann's disclosure of herself as a lesbian, as a "life of open honesty."

The trial creates a dilemma for the Methodist Church in the Pacific Northwest region, which has a more liberal stance on homosexuality than many other regions of the church. But just as the battle over gay marriage has moved into the secular courts, the Methodist Church resorted to ecclesiastical trials to enforce church law over homosexuality.

If convicted Dammann may face excommunication or be defrocked. But the punishment may be as lenient as a disciplinary letter in her personnel file.

Bishop William Boyd Grove, who is retired and serving as judge, opened the trial with a prayer and said, "This small gathering in this room is a microcosm of the United Methodist Church in its pain, in its yearning for healing, for grace and for direction."

The United Methodist Church is the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination, with about 8.3 million members. Their stance on homosexuality has been argued at every quadrennial meeting for the last 32 years. Convention votes indicate about two-thirds of church members oppose acceptance of homosexuality.

The Pacific Northwest region is home to the other one-third who favor acceptance of homosexuality, but it is an area where churches are losing members. The more conservative Southern and overseas regions are growing.

"I suspect that homosexuality will be a point of contention for at least the next two decades," said Mark Tooley, director of the United Methodist project at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative group that watches mainline Protestant denominations in the United States. "However, those of us on the traditional side are at least hopeful that in a demographic sense, the church is going in our direction."