Gay Methodist Cleric Defends Call to Ministry
Facing the possible loss of her Methodist clergy credentials, the Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud freely told a church court in Pughtown that she lived with her lesbian partner but refused to plead guilty to violating the denomination’s ban on gay clerics.
“For me to plead guilty would be to say I violated the sacred trust of an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church,” Stroud said. “I believe I have not violated that trust.”
Stroud, an associate pastor in Philadelphia, is being tried for violating the Methodists’ law against “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” in the ministry.
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