Posted on 11/28/2004 10:27:37 PM PST by Former Military Chick
Nineteen months ago, the Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud gave a sermon that began and ended with Jesus saying, "Peace be with you." In the middle, she told her congregants that she was living in a "covenant relationship" with another woman.
"I have come to a place where my discipleship, my walk with Christ, requires telling the whole truth, and paying whatever price truthfulness requires," she announced from the pulpit on the Sunday after Easter 2003.
Stroud's disclosure was no surprise to her flock at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown, a 210-year-old Philadelphia parish that welcomes gay men and lesbians. Many of its 800 members had known for years about her relationship with Chris Paige, a small-business consultant.
But Stroud's sermon was a challenge to the national church's rule against self-avowed gay men and women in the ministry, and it set in motion an investigation and charges that will culminate Wednesday in a church trial before a jury of fellow ministers. If Stroud, 34, is found guilty of "practices declared by the United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings," she may lose her credentials as a minister.
Like many other mainline Protestant denominations, the Methodist Church has been deeply divided for three decades over homosexuality, particularly in the clergy. Stroud is the third minister to face trial for violating its "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
In 1987, the church convicted and removed the Rev. Rose Mary Denman, a lesbian minister in New Hampshire who later wrote a book about her struggle.
In March, a panel of 13 ministers acquitted the Rev. Karen Dammann of Ellensburg, Wash., after a three-day trial that gained national attention. That verdict infuriated conservative Methodists, who accused the panel of "jury nullification," or simply disregarding a church law they did not agree with.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I figure she'll be a perfect fit for the Episcopalians.
Now the big question (which FMC brought up): why is this in the courts? This ought to be resolved internally in the church without government involvement.
The church "court" is, of course, the absolute right place for this issue.
The Bible condemns homosexuality. No if ands or buts about it. Jesus may not himself have said "homosexuality is a sin that separates one from God" but niether did he say anything directly about rape, incest, abortion or pedophilia. That doesn't mean Jesus condones this behavior -- it means that we are to take the Bible as a whole as Jesus specifically taught.
The church trial is the proper place for this denominational problem.
It's a church court.
If the church is an advocate of sin, it does not even deserve to be. People can sin all they want and not even bother with going to church to get the okay.
Thank you for addressing the question. I concur, that the church court is the best avenue for what she is seeking.
Frankly, if this has gone on as long as it has, I am not sure she will receive what she is searching for.
Similar incidents have happened in other churches, anyone think of one off hand?
That's fine, if they want her to be an church staff as a paid employee, it's their church
The Rev. Fred Day, who has been Stroud's senior pastor since she entered the ministry five years ago, said that if she is removed, it will send "a message of discrimination, and one of real incongruity" with the United Methodist Church's logo: "Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors."
I think they forgot "Open minds" does not mean check your mind at the door.
God's Word is the should be the final verdict on all Church matters.
The Word says homosexual behavior is wrong. Just as wrong as behaving as drug addict, fall down drunk, child molester. If a minister was openly any of the a fore mentioned sins, they would be hold accountable for their actions.
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