Guilty Lesbian Minister to Appeal her Case
The lesbian United Methodist minister defrocked for breaking the denomination’s standards on gay clergy announced on Monday her plans to take her case to the church appellate court
The lesbian United Methodist minister defrocked for breaking the denomination’s standards on gay clergy announced on Monday her plans to take her case to the church appellate court.
The Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud of Philadelphia was found guilty of violating the United Methodist Church (UMC)’s law against “self-avowed practicing homosexual” in the clergy, on Dec. 2; The UMC allows homosexual clergy as long as they are celibate since the church believes practice of homosexuality is incompatible to the scripture.
During the open-and-shut case, Stroud’s defense team planned to bring in 6 witnesses to legally and theologically testify against the denomination’s ban on gay clergy. However, the judge barred the testimonies since they were unrelated to the case at hand.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The verdict was made rather quickly, since Stroud herself confessed that she was a homosexual living in a sexually active relationship. The jury took more time in deciding the punishment, which could have ranged from a letter of reprimand to stripping Stroud of her credentials; by a 1-vote margin, the jury decided to defrock Stroud.
According to the Associated Press, Stroud decided to appeal last week, but delayed the announcement until after Christmas weekend; this is the last week she could file an appeal.
Stroud said that one of the deciding factors leading to the appeal was a comment made by Bishop Joseph Yeakel – the judge who tried her – after the early December hearing. Yeakel told Stroud “the day will come when the church apologizes for this decision.”
Stroud also said she plans to file the appeal because “there are questions the larger church needs to discuss and wrestle with.”
Specifically, Stroud said she plans to challenge the Methodist law banning gay clergy itself by brining up another law that “calls us a church to stand against every form of discrimination and treat all people as equally loved by God.”
"When you look at those provisions of the Discipline and some of the prohibitions on homosexuality, you have to make a choice," she said.
Stroud’s arguments are those often used by more liberal Methodists in calling against the ban on gay clergy. Earlier in the year, another lesbian minister named Rev. Karen Dammann was acquitted of the same charges as Stroud. Dammann’s controversial case was highly criticized for its obscure verdict: while Dammann was found to be a “self-avowed practicing homosexual,” she was found not guilty of breaking denominational laws.
During the denomination’s quadrennial General Conference in May, the majority of delegates voted to uphold the denomination’s laws against gay clergy on the basis that homosexuality is a practice that is incompatible to scripture.
Stroud is one of only three lesbian ministers tried in the United Methodist court after the denomination placed its laws on gay clergy in 1984. In the first of such cases, the Rev. Rose Mary Denman of New Hampshire was found guilty and was stripped of her ministerial credentials. Dammann’s case in late March was the second of such cases.
Stroud is the only one of the three who decided to appeal the court verdict; if the Northern Jurisdiction finds the trial procedures were mistaken, it could call for a second Pennsylvania trial.
