by Jason Victor Serinus
Beth Stroud was initially charged with violating Paragraph 304.3 of the UMC's 2000 Book of Discipline, which says: "Since the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching, self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be accepted as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church." She was stripped of her ministerial credentials on December 2, 2004.
Forbidden to wear the insignia of ordained ministry, perform weddings, consecrate communion, or baptize, the defrocked Stroud continued to serve as lay associate pastor of her Northwest Philadelphia church, whose long history of justice work has frequently led its congregants to take to the streets. Stroud's Germantown congregation, the subject of a lengthy PBS special aired shortly after the initial trial, has stood by her throughout her ordeal.
Presiding Judge Bishop Joseph Yeakel refused to allow Stroud's defense to cite a March 2004 Methodist decision which found open lesbian minister Rev. Karen Dammann of Seattle not guilty of engaging in "practices incompatible with Christian teachings." Nor did he grant Stroud the opportunity to challenge the Methodist rulebook on the grounds that it violates the Christian principles of the Bible and the Constitution of the United Methodist Church.
Initial Appeal
Stroud decided to appeal the initial verdict on December 27, 2004. She acknowledged at the time that a key factor in reaching her decision was a statement shared with her privately after her first trial by Bishop Yeakel. Yeakel told Stroud "the day will come when the church apologizes for this decision."
Beth Stroud appealed Yeakel's decision to exclude people from the jury pool who, for matters of conscience, felt they couldn't abide by provisions in the Methodist Rules of Discipline that bar lesbians and gay men from serving as ordained clergy. Stroud also contended she has never violated the greater Constitution of the United Methodist Church.
"I believe that the provisions of the Discipline that were citied in the charge are superceded by others that say that the Methodist Church abhors discrimination of all kinds and calls upon us to be inclusive of all peoples," Stroud explained in a phone interview late last year. "Our discipline says that gay and lesbian people are people of sacred worth in the eyes of God."
Stroud's first appeal took place in Baltimore on April 28, 2005. The appeal was not of the verdict itself, but rather of the decisions of law and the way the initial trial was conducted. The court voted 8-1 to set aside the initial verdict. Shortly thereafter, Bishop Marcus Mathews of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the UMC decided to appeal the decision to the Judicial Council, the Methodist equivalent of a Supreme Court. In the interim, Stroud chose not to redon her robe and stole and celebrate the sacraments.
"I've decided to wait until my case is resolved," she explained at the time. "Ordination is sacred to me, and I don't feel that I can just put it on and take it off again without trivializing it."
Coming Out
Stroud's confrontations with the church hierarchy began in the spring of 2003, after she sent a letter to her congregation announcing that was "a lesbian living in a committed relationship with a partner." The following Sunday, April 27, 2003, she gave a sermon in which she credited her partner Chris Paige with embodying "grace and love and discipleship for me" compounded the situation.
"Because of my relationship with her," said Stroud, "I am a better, more faithful Christian. I am deeply grateful to her for the daily practice in loving and being loved and forgiving and being forgiven that constantly deepen who I am as a person of faith."
Although Stroud was single at the time of her ordination, she began dating her partner Chris Paige shortly thereafter. The two first met in 1996, while both worked for a small progressive Christian magazine based in Philadelphia. The U-Haul arrived a week after their October 2000 commitment ceremony.
As a former editor of the predecessor to what is now New York City's Gay City News, Beth was well aware of the possible consequences of her actions when she brought her relationship out in the open. Yet she felt impelled to take a stance.
"In my silence," she explained after her initial trial, "I was not fully living out what I believed. I believe that God made all people with all kinds of colors and shapes and sizes and all kinds of sexual orientations. I believe that God blesses all kinds of loving families.
"I felt I needed to take this stand as a Christian, even knowing that it might cost me my credentials. I needed to tell the truth about my life, my faith, and the way I had experienced God in my life in my relationship with my partner as a lesbian faithful to God."
