October 27, 2004
By 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 'practices 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.

United Methodist News Service