wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Gay minister won't face charges

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Note #7522 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Gay minister won't face charges
02459

Gay minister won't face charges

Baltimore Presbytery PJC agrees with investigating committee

by Leslie Scanlon
The Presbyterian Outlook

Two members of Baltimore Presbytery's Permanent Judicial Commission
designated to review an investigating committee's report say no disciplinary
charges should be filed against Donald E. Stroud, a gay Presbyterian minister
who is on the staff of That All May Freely Serve.

The commission members' letter to the presbytery, which will meet on Nov. 21,
was made public Thursday by Charles P. Forbes, the presbytery's stated clerk.

The permanent judicial commission members were asked to review an
investigating committee's decision not to bring charges against Stroud and
the letter is its response. Following their investigation and review of the
facts in the case, PJC members Mary D. Gaut and Thomas B. Eastman say, "We
find no reason to sustain the petition and concur in the decision of the
investigating committee that no charges be filed."

Their official letter, as per PC(USA) judicial process, does not contain
either Stroud's name or that of the person who has complained about his
behavior, Virginia attorney Paul Rolf Jensen. Both Stroud and Jensen,
however, have publicly announced their roles in the dispute.

Jensen made complaints to numerous presbyteries across the denomination,
mostly against self-avowed homosexual officers, or sessions which have made
statements that they will not enforce Book of Order G-6.0106b, the section
that states that ordained church officers should live either in fidelity
within the covenant of heterosexual marriage or in chastity in singleness.

A presbytery is required to investigate any complaint filed within its
jurisdiction. The investigating committee decides whether to file formal
charges with the presbytery's permanent judicial commission.

The complaint against Stroud, who was a commissioner to the 213th General
Assembly and stated his sexuality on the floor of the Assembly, was made by
Jensen in September 2001. The presbytery's investigating committee reviewed
he complaint and reported last June that it was not filing charges against
Stroud. Jensen then petitioned the presbytery's Permanent Judicial Commission
to review the investigating committee's findings.

About the same time, Stroud announced publicly that, as a matter of faith and
conscience, he cannot comply with the "fidelity and chastity" provision of
the church's Constitution.

In a related matter, the Mid-Atlantic Synod is creating an administrative
review committee to examine the Baltimore Presbytery's actions regarding
Stroud, in response to two letters sent to the synod's stated clerk . The
synod council is expected to select the members of that review committee when
it meets Friday and the committee should begin its work by early December.

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