Dissident Minister, Backers Arrested

A dissident Lutheran minister, out of jail less than two weeks, led a curbside service outside his padlocked church Sunday and later was arrested with six supporters as they tried to enter another Lutheran church.

The seven were arraigned and released on their own recognizance after a hearing before Magistrate Sally Edkins.

Police said the Rev. D. Douglas Roth and the others were arrested on charges of refusing to disperse and defiant trespass, after about 20 of Roth’s supporters apparently tried to enter Faith Lutheran Church in this affluent Pittsburgh suburb.

About 10 policemen waiting outside the brick church ordered Roth’s group to disperse within 60 seconds after they arrived, witnesses said.

“I sure don’t want to be arrested,” Roth said after the hearing. “But it seems that the (Lutheran) church is determined not to let these people worship.”

Roth, 33, was released from the Armstrong County Jail on March 4 after serving 112 days for civil contempt of court. A judge sent Roth to jail after Roth defied Lutheran Bishop Kenneth May’s order to step down as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church.

May acted after members of Roth’s congregation complained about his work with the Denominational Ministry Strategy, a group of several Pittsburgh-area Protestant ministers, and an allied group of militant labor leaders.