A lesbian United Methodist minister defrocked 20 years ago after saying she was in a “committed relationship with another woman” is again an ordained minister in the denomination.
The Rev. Irene Elizabeth “Beth” Stroud was expelled from the ministry in 2004 in a move consistent with the denomination’s then-policy barring active homosexuals from the clergy. According to the official UM News agency, Ms. Stroud had briefly been the First United Methodist Church pastor in Germantown, Pennsylvania, before her defrocking.
On May 1, delegates to the UMC’s quadrennial business session in Charlotte, North Carolina, voted to overturn a 40-year-old ban on the ordination of LGBTQ individuals.
The UMC news agency reported the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference’s 200 clerics “voted overwhelmingly” on Tuesday to readmit Ms. Stroud to full membership. She received a red clergy stole and processed into the annual meeting for the opening service.
“I’m grateful that the church has opened up to LGBTQ persons,” said UMC Bishop John Schol, who leads the Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey UMC conferences, which are equivalent to a diocese.
“I couldn’t be prouder as your bishop, and you couldn’t have given me a better gift as I retire,” Mr. Schol, who departs in August, said.
Ms. Stroud told the church news agency she was nonplussed during the experience.
“For a while, I couldn’t tell where the front of the room was, where I was, where I needed to go … The bishop asked me if I wanted to say anything, and I said I couldn’t,” she said.
The readmitted pastor, who earned a doctorate in religion in 2018 from Princeton University, will join the faculty of the Methodist Theological School in Ohio this summer to teach “History of Religion,” UM News reported.
After years of debate over LGBTQ issues, United Methodists in 2019 opened a four-year window for congregations to disaffiliate from the denomination. By the end of 2023, when that opportunity ended, one-quarter of UMC churches in the United States — and an estimated 24% of its members — left for other groups, with many joining the more conservative Global Methodist Church.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.