By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
March 2, 2010
A candidate to be the next Bishop of the Diocese of Rio Grande will continue to let his name stand despite newspaper revelations that a woman sued and won a $42,500 judgment against him. He served with her in a parish in Sparta, NJ in 1996.
The Rev. John Nieman told VOL in an e-mail, "The good people of the Diocese of the Rio Grande have worked carefully over the past few years, including throughout the Bishop search process, to develop themselves as a prayerful community with the aim of genuine discernment of the movement of the Holy Spirit. I am honored to have been chosen to be a nominee in that context. I look forward to the walkabouts and am eager to respond to questions from them pertaining to the many and varied experiences that have contributed to the shaping of my ministry."
Nieman is now the rector of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Clemson, in the Diocese of Upper South Carolina.
In 1996, when Nieman was rector of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Sparta, NJ, Karen Scott of Sparta sued him for publically chastising parishioners who wanted Scott's former husband, the church's choirmaster, to be more discreet about his homosexuality. Scott's ex-husband was hired by St. Mary's in 1982.
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