A Methodist minister who was defrocked last month for declaring herself a lesbian said yesterday that she will appeal the decision through church courts.
The case of Irene Elizabeth Stroud has reverberated through the 8.3 million-member United Methodist Church since a jury of 13 fellow ministers convicted her on Dec. 2 of violating the denomination's ban on "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" in the clergy.
Irene Elizabeth Stroud was found guilty of violating the United Methodist Church ban on "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" in the clergy.
(Tim Shaffer -- Reuters)
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She will gain more notoriety tomorrow night, when WETA in Washington and other PBS television stations across the country will air a two-hour documentary on her racially mixed, urban Philadelphia congregation.
The documentary includes portions of Stroud's trial as well as her coming-out sermon in April 2003, which broke the Methodist Church's "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward gay men and lesbians in ordained ministry.
Rather than splitting over her sexuality, Stroud's 1,000-member congregation rallied around her and became more unified than it had been in years, according to Academy Award-winning filmmakers Susan and Alan Raymond.
Stroud's appeal will go first to a regional panel of Methodist clergy and then, in all likelihood, to the nine-member Judicial Council, the church's highest court. Experts on church law called it a long shot, because the Judicial Council issued two decisions in 2004 reaffirming the denomination's rules on clerical conduct.
"Recent decisions by the council logically lead to the conclusion that it is unlikely to reverse" her conviction, said William B. Lawrence, dean of the Perkins School of Theology and professor of American church history at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
But, he added, "it is very clear that no matter what happens with the Beth Stroud appeal, the debate among Methodists over homosexuality will continue -- and it will continue to be a troubling and divisive debate."
Stroud indicated in a telephone interview that she has no illusions about her chances.
"It's never been about winning or losing for me. It's about bearing witness and telling the truth," she said. "As long as there are avenues open to me to continue to bear witness about what I believe is morally right and what I believe is the Gospel, I need to keep moving forward."
A legal brief prepared by her church lawyer, the Rev. J. Dennis Williams, argues that the prohibition on gay clergy members conflicts with other provisions in the church's Constitution and Book of Discipline. It notes, for example, that Article 4 of the Methodist Constitution says that "all persons, without regard to race, color, national origin, status, or economic condition," are eligible for membership.
"I believe in my heart that when I look at the Book of Discipline as a whole, that I have not violated it," Stroud said. "The discipline calls United Methodists to stand against discrimination of all kinds, it calls United Methodists to stand for justice, it says homosexuals no less than heterosexuals are persons of sacred worth, and it says there should be no discrimination on the basis of status."
Like many other denominations, the Methodist Church differentiates between having a same-sex orientation and practicing homosexuality; its rules allow gays to remain in ministry as long as they are celibate.
Stroud's legal brief says that distinction "makes no sense," arguing that it is akin to saying it is all right for someone to have blue eyes but not to see through blue eyes.
