Lesbian minister to face church trial in December

At her request, the Rev. Irene "Beth" Stroud will have her case tried publicly. It will be the region's first open church trial in more than 50 years

by MICHAEL J. MISHAK

The Rev. Irene "Beth" Stroud will face a church trial Dec. 1 to decide whether her lesbian relationship violates United Methodist Church law. Stroud, associate pastor of First United Methodist Church of Germantown (FUMCOG) since 1999, came out to her congregation as a lesbian in a "covenant relationship" during a sermon in April 2003.

At issue is whether gay and lesbian Methodists can be ordained and serve in the church. Though church law precludes "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" from being ordained or appointed as clergy in the United Methodist Church, Stroud belongs to FUMCOG, a Reconciling Congregation that supports full inclusion of gays and lesbians in both ordination and ministry.

Early last month, an investigating committee voted unanimously to send Stroud's case to trial. The decision came after retired Bishop Joseph H. Yeakel, the presiding church official in the case, voided a prior committee's trial vote in September for legal and procedural errors.

Stroud requested an open trial. According to the denomination's Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, the trial will be the region's first open church proceeding in more than a half-century. Church trials are typically closed.

"There's nothing that I want to hide," Stroud said in a phone interview last week. "There's nothing in my testimony or my beliefs of which I'm ashamed."

The trial will be held at Camp Innabah, a church camp located in Spring City in western Chester County, near Pottstown. At least nine votes from the jury's 13 members, all United Methodist pastors drawn from the state's 16-county eastern conference, are required for a conviction.

Stroud is charged with "practices declared by the United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings." If found guilty, Stroud could lose her ordination credentials.

While a lesbian pastor in Washington state was acquitted earlier this year of the same charge, the ruling did little to change denomination-wide policy, instead spurring church officials to reaffirm the ban on self-avowed homosexual ministers. It remains unclear if the decision could complicate Stroud's legal defense.

Stroud has enjoyed the support of her congregation since the legal process began in April 2003. FUMCOG established a legal defense fund for Stroud the following month. She has chosen to be represented by the Rev. J. Dennis Williams, a retired pastor, and Alan Symonette, an attorney and labor arbitrator.

While a number of local daily and weekly newspapers, including the Local, have covered the case from the outset, wire services have circulated the story throughout the country. Stroud said she's talked with reporters from publications as far away as Kansas City and Hawaii, but is not feeling deluged with attention.

Bishop Marcus Matthews, who presides over the Philadelphia area, set the trial date. In a letter last week, Matthews called on the region's church members to hold a daylong prayer vigil on Dec. 1 in the hopes of "rightly discern[ing] the will of God and that justice, mercy and faith will prevail for all persons involved." He also asked local Methodists to pray for those involved with the trial, specifically naming Stroud and her partner.

The trial, open to both the public and the press, is expected to last one to three days.

"This whole journey has been about being honest, open and truthful with my community, my church and my denomination," Stroud said. "For me, having the trial in the open is a part of that journey."