wfn.org | UMNS# 04499-Conference announces Dec. 1 trial date for

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Conference announces Dec. 1 trial date for Philadelphia pastor 

Oct. 27, 2004	 News media contact:   Linda  Bloom * (646) 3693759*  New
York {04499}

NOTE: A photo and related resources are available at
http://www.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=2&mid=5909.

By Linda Bloom
United Methodist News Service

A Dec. 1 trial date is set for the Rev. Irene Elizabeth (Beth) Stroud, a
United Methodist pastor who has been open with her Philadelphia congregation
about her sexual orientation and relationship with another woman.

The date was announced Oct. 26 by the United Methodist Eastern Pennsylvania
Annual (regional) Conference. Retired Bishop Joseph Yeakel will preside over
the church trial, which will take place at Camp Innabah, a church camp near
Pottstown.

"Pastor Stroud will be tried before a court of her peers, ordained elders in
full connection in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, on charges of
engaging in 'practices incompatible with Christian teaching,' a violation of
Paragraph 2702 (1) (b) of the 2000 Book of Discipline of the United Methodist
Church," wrote Bishop Marcus Matthews in a pastoral letter to the conference.

Church law forbids "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" from being ordained
or appointed as clergy in churches.

Stroud, 34, has served as associate pastor of First United Methodist Church
of Germantown in Philadelphia since 1999.

"I'm just trusting that God will work in and through whatever happens," she
told United Methodist News Service.

In April 2003, Stroud talked about being a lesbian during a sermon and said
she and her partner "have lived in a covenant relationship for two and a half
years." Last July, a conference investigating committee reviewed a complaint
against Stroud and agreed there were grounds for a church trial.

Yeakel, however, ordered a new hearing by the committee in September because
lay people had been counted in the committee vote, which did not conform to
church law, he said. That hearing took place Oct. 11 and reaffirmed the first
decision.

The Rev. J. Dennis Williams, a retired pastor, will serve as counsel to
Stroud during the trial. He will be assisted by Alan Symonette, an attorney
and labor arbitrator who is a co-lay leader at the Germantown church, and by
a team of attorneys from the congregation.

A letter from Germantown's pastoral staff expressed continued support for
Stroud. "We believe that justice would best be served by Beth continuing to
serve in the ministry she loves, and to which she is called, with full
ordination credentials," it said.

The trial, which is open to the public, is expected to last between one and
three days. For Stroud to be found guilty of the charge against her requires
at least 9 votes from the 13-member trial court or jury. If convicted, the
trial court would then decide the penalty.

In his pastoral letter, Matthews asked all United Methodist congregations in
the conference's 16 counties "to hold a daylong prayer vigil on Dec. 1 that
we may rightly discern the will of God and that justice, mercy and faith will
prevail for all persons involved."

He asked church members "to keep in prayer the Rev. Beth Stroud and her
partner, Chris Paige" as well as all others involved in the trial.

News media contact: Linda Bloom7(646)369-37597New York7 E-mail:
newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
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