Defrocked Lesbian Methodist Files Appeal to Church Court
A lesbian woman who was stripped of her ministerial credentials by the United Methodist Church five months ago appealed to regain her post
A lesbian woman who was stripped of her ministerial credentials by the United Methodist Church five months ago appealed to regain her post on April 28, 2005.
Beth Stroud was removed from her post as a Methodist minister after a church court found her guilty of violating church laws that prohibit the ordination of practicing homosexuals.
On Thursday, a regional appeals panel spent three hours listening to arguments from Stroud’s defense and from the church at a hotel near the Baltimore Washington International Airport.
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During the appeal, Stroud’s defense, the Rev. Jim Hallam, argued against the denomination’s law banning active homosexuals from the ministry and said Stroud’s decision to tell her congregation about her lifestyle was honest attempt to “live as she was created to be.”
"Why did Beth share her homosexual status (with her congregation)?" Hallam, asked the panel during the hearing according to AP. “She didn't want to live in secrecy anymore, under that cloak of silence. She wanted to live as she was created to be."
"It seems the church would have preferred her to be deceptive - 'Don't ask, don't tell,'" he added.
However, the ministerial counsel for the church, the Rev. Thomas Hall, called the defense's argument "circular" since he questioned the denomination’s law and not whether Stroud broke the law.
"This trial is not about how good we are at ministry. It's really about a good person who has stepped over the line and contested the boundaries."
"The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers it incompatible with Christian teaching,” Hall said.
Hall said Stroud understood the consequences of her actions, and "that her role as a minister was jeopardized" when she violated the law against "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" in the clergy.
Hall also explained that while some may disagree with the church’s law, it is clear on the issue of homosexuality.
"We may not like the boundaries. We may think they're ... too un-loving, too exclusive. But the fact is, the boundaries are clearly in place."
After the hearing, Stroud said she was “impressed” by the committee on appeals.
"I was very impressed with the Committee on Appeals. They were very astute and they just showed an enormous understanding of church law and the issues involved,” said Stroud.
Stroud, who currently serves as a lay leader to the First United Methodist Church in Germantown, said she will not begin ministering as a pastor until the entire appeals process is played out and unless she succeeds.
According to the Rev. William Scott Campbell, chairman of the appeals panel, he said to AP that one of several things could happen after the decision is announced. Either side could appeal to a Methodist supreme court or the case could be remanded for a second trial. The appeals panel could also reverse the earlier verdict, change the penalty, or do both.
Stroud is one of three lesbian ministers tried since the denomination adopted a ban on active homosexual pastors in 1984. The Rev. Rose Mary Denman of New Hampshire was defrocked in 1987. The Rev. Karen Dammann of Washington state was acquitted last March because of an ambiguity in church law that the Methodist supreme court has since eliminated.
Last year, at the quadrennial General Conference, the majority of the 1,000 Methodist delegates voted in favor of upholding current standards on the ministry. The next General Conference – the highest legislative body in the church – meets in 2008.
The decision on Stroud’s appeal is expected to be released on Friday.
