Dec 10, 2004  |  By: JASON VICTOR SERINUS  | COMMENTS     

PHILADELPHIA — Eighteen months after Rev. Beth Stroud, a 34-year-old associate pastor of Philadelphia’s First United Methodist Church of Germantown, sent a letter to her congregation announcing that she was “a lesbian living in a committed relationship with a partner,” a Methodist court of 13 clergy last week voted 7-6 to withdraw her ministerial credentials.

Stroud was charged with violating Paragraph 2702.1(b) of the 2000 Book of Discipline by living as “a self-avowed practicing homosexual in a monogamous, committed relationship … while in the ordained ministry.”

Though Stroud can no longer wear the insignia of ordained ministry, perform weddings, consecrate communion, or baptize, she continues as associate pastor of the Northwest Philadelphia church whose history of justice work frequently leads its congregants to take to the streets.

Charges against Stroud were based on four pieces of evidence. These included an April 2003 sermon in which she credited Chris Paige, with whom she has now lived for four years, as embodying “grace and love and discipleship for me.”

“Because of my relationship with her,” Stroud said in her sermon, “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.”

Five days after the verdict, Stroud granted her first post-trial interview to the gay media. The phone interview was held during a day filled with ministerial duties.

Asked if she has since decided to appeal, Stroud said that she is torn.

“This congregation decided roughly 15 years ago to become a reconciling congregation that’s fully inclusive of gay and lesbian people in all aspects of its life and ministry,” she said.

“When we made that decision, the church went through a very long process where it was important that everyone be heard and everyone have a chance to speak. As a result, some of my strongest supporters in the congregation are people who then had a different perspective on homosexuality than they have now. I would like my brothers and sisters throughout the [United Methodist Church] to have the same opportunity for conversion and transformation on this issue that members of my congregation had.

“There are still a lot of people in our country, including church ministers, who don’t realize that they’ve ever met a gay person. In the same way that when I came out to my family, the issue of homosexuality became far more personal for them and they became much more actively supportive, loving and caring, it is my hope that some of the same thing may happen in the church.”

On the other hand, she acknowledges that perhaps two-thirds of United Methodist Church members worldwide still believe that the church rule barring openly gay people from ministry is correct.

“I have to ask myself, if I should appeal and win, if that would be healthy for the church. Would it further harden positions and disrupt the opportunity that may now exist for people to hear each other and change their perspectives?”

Asked if her decision would be based on what is healthy for Stroud, she laughed.

“Oh, yeah, I’ve got to look at that too.

Exhausted and overwhelmed
“I’m exhausted and overwhelmed by the enormous changes that have taken place in my life in the past seven days. I’m getting some sleep, but I’m not fully caught up. I really haven’t had enough time to sit down and absorb what all of this means.”

Stroud is no stranger to gay activism. In her 20s, she served as editor of LGNY, the predecessor to New York’s Gay City News. It was while interviewing four New York pastors and rabbis for a story about gay and lesbian spiritual leaders that she said she heard an inner voice saying, “I don’t want you to write about this. I want you to do it.” That voice led her to become a minister and then come out.

“I felt that in my silence, 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, ...