UMC Finds Lesbian Pastor Guilty of Violating Church Law
by Fred Jackson and Jody Brown
December 2, 2004
(AgapePress) - An openly homosexual United Methodist pastor has told a church trial she's not guilty of violating church law that forbids homosexual clergy.
Once again, the United Methodist Church is being forced to deal with a pastor who is openly violating scriptural teaching. Facing the possible loss of her Methodist clergy credentials, Pastor Irene Elizabeth Stroud freely told a church court on Wednesday (December 1) that she lives with her lesbian partner, but refused to plead guilty to violating the denomination's ban on homosexual clerics in non-celibate relationships.
According to the United Methodist News Service, a trial court of 13 fellow pastors will decide if Stroud is guilty of engaging in "practices declared by the United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings." Nine of those pastors' votes are needed for conviction, which could result in penalties ranging from loss of credentials to a less severe punishment. According to that report, Stroud expects to lose her credentials as a result of the trial.
Stroud's defense attorney stated that the case might seem "a slam dunk" because church law is very specific about not allowing homosexual clergy. But he then declared that Methodist founder John Wesley decided women should preach if "they are under an extraordinary impulse of the Spirit."
Alan Symonette, a lay leader in Stroud's Germantown, Pennsylvania, church, told UMNS that the lesbian pastor "happens to be gay and in a covenanted relationship [and] has been called to ministry by God." The church, he said, should not "depress" Stroud, nor should it "separat[e] Beth from who she is and from her ability to practice ministry."
Should Stroud lose in the clergy court, her congregation in Philadelphia has already agreed she can continue preaching, teaching, and pastoral work as a lay employee. She would not, however, be able to celebrate baptism or communion.
The Pennsylvania pastor, who admitted to her lesbian lifestyle 18 months ago, appeared at a pre-trial press conference with her lesbian partner, Chris Paige. Stroud stated her belief that God created her to be a lesbian, and conveyed her hope that the UMC will eventually change its laws regarding self-avowed practicing homosexuals being appointed to churches.
"Whether that will happen with my case, I do not know," she told UMNS, adding that during the trial she will try to "present myself with as much grace and dignity as I can."
Rev. Tom Hall is the lead counsel for the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference, which brought the complaint against Stroud. Hall acknowledged it is painful to bring a colleague to trial based on the denomination's Book of Discipline, but "when someone steps over the line, we are to be accountable." The trial, he said, is "to determine guilt or innocence -- not to debate a word."
Stroud also testified yesterday that she stayed with the United Methodist Church because that is where she grew up, though she had considered the more homosexual-friendly United Church of Christ and Episcopal denominations.
