Posted on 12/02/2004 8:43:11 PM PST by Former Military Chick
n the second ecclesiastical trial of a gay Methodist minister in less than a year, a jury of 13 clergy members in eastern Pennsylvania convicted a fellow pastor of violating church law by living in a lesbian relationship and ordered her defrocked.
The ruling is evidence of the United Methodist Church's efforts this summer to tighten rules banning "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" from the ministry, a step that gained greater urgency after the jury in a trial in Bothell, Wash., last March cleared another lesbian minister of breaking church law.
At the trial in Pughtown, Pa., the jury voted 12 to 1 against the Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud, the associate pastor at Philadelphia's First United Methodist Church of Germantown. It then voted 7 to 6 to remove her from the ministry. The trial lasted for two days, and Ms. Stroud now has 30 days to file an appeal.
"It was difficult and painful for all those involved," said Stephen Drachler, spokesman for the United Methodist Church. "But the process worked in the way it was designed to work."
The debate over gays in the clergy is roiling many mainline Protestant denominations and threatening some, like the Episcopal Church, with schism. While few Methodists expect their church, the country's third-largest denomination, to reach such a point, some said expulsions of gay clergy members could increase as more of them take on the church's edicts.
"In most of the church there is a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy like in the military," said the Rev. George McClain, an instructor in United Methodist studies at the liberal Union Theological Seminary in New York. "You might have activists now on the right who want to ferret out gay people and those on the other side who are gay but don't want to live a double life anymore."
Ms. Stroud, 34, was the first Methodist minister to be defrocked for her lesbian lifestyle since a New Hampshire ecclesiastical court ruled against the Rev. Rose Mary Denman in 1987. Ms. Stroud came out to her congregation in a sermon more than a year ago, saying she lived in a committed relationship with her partner, Chris Paige. If bishops could look the other way in such a case in the past, Mr. McClain said, they are now being compelled to act under stricter rules instituted by the church's highest judicial body.
As a result, Ms. Stroud had said before the trial that she expected to be convicted. The pastor of her church and others, including the prosecutor in the trial, praised her abilities as a minister, news agencies reported. Her congregation had earlier said that if she were defrocked, it would keep her on as a lay pastor to continue her youth ministry. But she would no longer be able to celebrate baptisms, weddings or communion.
"Of course, I'm disappointed with the verdict, but I do have a very deep sense of peace," Ms. Stroud said in a telephone interview. "God is still going to call qualified gay and lesbian people into ministry at our church and other denominations."
That would set the stage for further confrontation.
"In the mainline churches, this isn't a lost cause," Mr. McClain said of the debate over gays. "It's a struggle for religious hearts and minds."
Still, he warned that the church's stance against gay clergy members could lead to a hemorrhage of ministers from the denomination. But other clergy members contended that all ministers must abide by the decision of the church's members, taken at its quadrennial general conferences, including one this year, to welcome practicing gays to the pews but not the pulpit.
The Rev. Maxie Dunnam, chancellor of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky., said, "No matter how gifted a minister someone might be, if that person isn't living within the covenant of the church, he or she isn't helping the church."
Ewwww!
The right direction would be to clean out the seminaries - with a flamethrower and meatcleavers. As I see it, this is nothing more than a show trial for all of the blue-haired grandmas that are riled with the blatant apostasy. None of this would have occured if the leadership had not turned a blind eye (or, perhaps, an approving eye) to what has already been going on for years.
Sorry, but that word is a bit TOO close to the other "hemorr" word. Not a nice mental picture.
The did the right thing even from a secular point of view. WHEN the invevitable scandal (ala catholic churches homosexual priests) there will be able to use this active policy of expulsion to avoid charges of complicity.
Up to now the mediots would NEVER have believe a homosexual could be removed, in their eyes acceptance on all fronts shall be coerced at all costs.
The Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud, right, walks with her partner, Chris Paige, as they enter the Andy's Court Building at Camp Innnabah on the first day of Stroud's trial in Pughtown, Pa., Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2004 (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)
Deo gratia!
It's time to throw out all of the Homosexual Preachers, priests, bishops from every religion. They are an abomination to GOD and therefore cannot be allowed to hold that position.
The Laws of Man MUST be made Subserviant to the LAWS OF GOD! The people who continue to break the Laws of God by their degenrate life style are not only Abominations they are Heritics.
Are they sure that Chris isn't a dude? Sorry, I couldn't resist.
I see no point in being a lesbian if they go after women that look like men. Sort of defeats the purpose, I think.
It is too late to put a finger in the dike. They need to do more than say this is against official church policy. The Methodist Church has been a haven for homosexuals for decades.
It will take more than your finger!!
SPOTREP
That's gotta hurt.
" The Methodist Church has been a haven for homosexuals for decades."
Of my last eight UM pastors before I finally gave up on the UMC, one was actively gay, one was actively lesbian, one gay man and one bi man were each married to lesbian "beards", one woman was ostensibly straight but so gay-supportive and ideologically feminist (i.e., "God is female") that she had been tried by the church for heresy. Just three were married straight men, but they were completely supportive of the gay pastors' blatant hypocrisy and enthusiastic "youth" events, like showing prison-break movies on Sunday night containing references to anal sex.
And these were just the pastors. You should have seen the music directors and "youth leaders"!
How did this church, that forbade drinking, as well as dancing, card playing and movies on the Sabbath in my parents' and grandparents' era, become so treacherous to the Word of God?
BTW, this article has another thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1293247/posts
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