Conference announces Dec. 1 trial date for Philadelphia pastor
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Irene Elizabeth "Beth" Stroud |
| Irene Elizabeth "Beth" Stroud |
Oct. 27, 2004By Linda Bloom
United Methodist News Service A
Dec. 1 trial date is set for the Rev. Irene Elizabeth (Beth) Stroud, a
United Methodist pastor who has been open with her Philadelphia
congregation about her sexual orientation and relationship with another
woman. The
date was announced Oct. 26 by the United Methodist Eastern Pennsylvania
Annual (regional) Conference. Retired Bishop Joseph Yeakel will preside
over the church trial, which will take place at Camp Innabah, a church
camp near Pottstown. "Pastor
Stroud will be tried before a court of her peers, ordained elders in
full connection in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, on charges of
engaging in ‘practice incompatible with Christian teaching,’ a violation
of Paragraph 2702 (1) (b) of the 2000 Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church," wrote Bishop Marcus Matthews in a pastoral letter to the conference. Church law forbids "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" from being ordained or appointed as clergy in churches. Stroud, 34, has served as associate pastor of First United Methodist Church of Germantown in Philadelphia since 1999. "I’m just trusting that God will work in and through whatever happens," she told United Methodist News Service. In
April 2003, Stroud talked about being a lesbian during a sermon and
said she and her partner "have lived in a covenant relationship for two
and a half years." Last July, a conference investigating committee
reviewed a complaint against Stroud and agreed there were grounds for a
church trial. Yeakel,
however, ordered a new hearing by the committee in September because
lay people had been counted in the committee vote, which did not conform
to church law, he said. That hearing took place Oct. 11 and reaffirmed
the first decision. The
Rev. J. Dennis Williams, a retired pastor, will serve as counsel to
Stroud during the trial. He will be assisted by Alan Symonette, an
attorney and labor arbitrator who is a co-lay leader at the Germantown
church, and by a team of attorneys from the congregation. A
letter from Germantown’s pastoral staff expressed continued support for
Stroud. "We believe that justice would best be served by Beth
continuing to serve in the ministry she loves, and to which she is
called, with full ordination credentials," it said. The
trial, which is open to the public, is expected to last between one and
three days. For Stroud to be found guilty of the charge against her
requires at least 9 votes from the 13-member trial court or jury. If
convicted, the trial court would then decide the penalty. In
his pastoral letter, Matthews asked all United Methodist congregations
in the conference’s 16 counties "to hold a daylong prayer vigil on Dec. 1
that we may rightly discern the will of God and that justice, mercy and
faith will prevail for all persons involved." He
asked church members "to keep in prayer the Rev. Beth Stroud and her
partner, Chris Paige" as well as all others involved in the trial. News media contact: Linda Bloom·(646)369-3759·New York· E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org.
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