Twenty years ago, Beth Stroud was defrocked as a United Methodist Church pastor after telling her Philadelphia congregation that she was in a committed same-sex relationship. On Tuesday night, less than three weeks after the UMC repealed its anti-LGBTQ bans, she was reinstated.

In a closed meeting of clergy from the UMC’s Eastern Pennsylvania region, Stroud exceeded the 2/3 vote requirement to be readmitted as a full member and pastor in the UMC.