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Judicial Council will hear oral arguments on three cases

Oct. 13, 2005

NOTE: A file photograph and logo are available at http://umns.umc.org.

A UMNS Report
By Neill Caldwell*

The United Methodist Judicial Council will conduct oral hearings on
three of its docket items Oct. 27 during its session in Houston,
including the case of a pastor who has admitted she is a practicing
homosexual and the case of a Virginia minister who refused church
membership to a gay person.

The council's rules of procedure allow parties involved in items under
review to request the opportunity to present oral arguments. The
nine-member court has 14 items on the docket for its regular fall
meeting, which will be Oct. 26-29.

Oral hearings will begin at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, at the
Stansbury Building on the Westchase Campus of First United Methodist
Church. The church is at 10570 Westpark Drive in Houston.

Irene Elizabeth "Beth" Stroud, who had been serving as an assistant
pastor of First United Methodist Church in Germantown, Pa., admitted in
a sermon and in a letter to her congregation that she was "a lesbian
living in a committed relationship with a partner." Last December, she
was found guilty of violating church law, which forbids the ordination
and appointment of "self-avowed practicing homosexuals," and lost her
ordination credentials. Then in April, the Northeastern Jurisdiction
Committee on Appeals reversed and set aside the verdict and penalty
decided by the trial court. The conference then filed an appeal with the
Judicial Council, the denomination's "supreme court."

Stroud is on voluntary leave of absence as a clergy member but continues
to work as a lay minister at her church.

The council will hear oral arguments on the Stroud case from 9 to 10:30
a.m. Following a break, the court will hear arguments from 10:45 to
11:30 a.m. on an item from the Tennessee Annual (regional) Conference
concerning the allocation by the secretary of the General Conference of
additional at-large members of general program boards and general
agencies.

The item relates to the formula for filling seats on the boards and
agencies of the church and whether that formula will continue in its
current form or whether it could be interpreted differently by the
Judicial Council to allow greater representation from areas with more
members. The General Conference secretary makes the appointments from
people who are nominated.

Finally, at 11:30 a.m., the council will conduct an oral hearing on its
reviews of two related bishop's decisions of law in the Virginia
Conference. The first is related to Bishop Charlene Kammerer's decision
related to the disciplinary purview of the conference relations
committee of the board of ordained ministry and the fair process rights
of a pastor. The second is the bishop's decision of law related to the
authority of a pastor under Paragraphs 214 and 225 of the 2004 Book of
Discipline to exercise judgment in determining who may be received into
membership in the local church.

Those two docket items are related to action taken against the Rev.
Edward Johnson of South Hill (Va.) United Methodist Church, who was
placed on involuntary leave by the June 13 clergy executive session of
the Virginia Annual Conference for his refusal to admit a gay person
into membership at the church. The yearlong leave began July 1.

The Judicial Council's Rules of Practice and Procedure state that oral
arguments normally are not be granted in cases of the review of a
bishop's decision of law.

The doors to the hearing room at First United Methodist Church's
Westchase Campus will be opened to the general public at 8:45 a.m.
Seating will be on a first come, first seated basis.

*Caldwell is a freelance writer based in High Point, N.C.

News media contact: Tim Tanton or Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

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

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org

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