NIC VOICE - Beth Stroud Trial Updates 11-29-2004

NIC VOICE News Update 11-29-2004 Beth Stroud Case

NIC VOICE is a network of laity in the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church.

NIC VOICE posts news related to the Northern Illinois Conference, as well as GC/JC/AC Conference updates at the NIC VOICE web site (www.nicvoice.org).

If you desire to contact NIC VOICE by mail, please email us to request postal information. Please do not use the P.O. Box as of September 30, 2004.

Other news of interest across the UMC included in NIC VOICE news updates are now being posted in the NIC VOICE forum at Faithful Christian Laity Discussion Forum.

View previously released NIC VOICE news updates on the Beth Stroud Case here: http://www.faithfulchristianlaity.org/discussion/viewtopic.php?t=191

PRESS ARTICLES: (Note – some of these articles may require free registration to access and may be on-line for only a short period before being archived)

November 24, 2004: Lesbian Methodist Pastor to Face Trial Next Week

http://www.christianpost.com/dbase/church/1661/section/1.htm

Christian Post - San Francisco,CA,USA

Stroud’s trial will begin on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 at Camp Innabah, one of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference’s camps, located in Pughtown, PA, and is expected to last at most three days.

Jury selection will begin at 9 a.m. The trial is to be open to the public and the press, and will start after the trial court has been chosen, probably around 10 a.m. (UMNS).

The 13 members and two alternates will be chosen from a pool of at least 35 Eastern Pennsylvania clergy. The bishop’s cabinet, the district superintendents, chooses the pool. Consideration is given to ensure that the pool is diverse in race, ethnicity and gender. The alternates will sit as observers and will be prepared to serve if one or two of the original jurors are unable to sit.

Nine votes are needed to convict, but seven votes by the trial court are necessary to set the penalty, which could mean the removal of ministerial order. Read More

November 28, 2004: Her life's dream goes on trial

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/breaking_news/10285960.htm

philly.com (subscription) - Philadelphia,PA,USA

Stroud's orientation was no secret to most of the congregation, a feisty, diverse group known for its progressive politics. In fact, Stroud first found her way to the Germantown church, known by its acronym FUMCOG, as a Bryn Mawr College student after she came out as a lesbian and no longer felt at home in her parents' United Methodist church.

FUMCOG is part of a splinter movement of Reconciling Congregations that dissent from the denomination's position that homosexual practice is incompatible with Christian teaching. The church has rallied around Stroud, raising money for her legal defense, trying to lighten her workload so she can prepare for the trial, and promising that she will still have a job even if she loses her ministry credentials.

"That would be a shattering thing, because Beth loves being a minister," said George Herold, a 50-year member who attended Stroud and Paige's "holy union" ceremony in 2000 at the West Philadelphia church where Paige is an elder.

But the Methodist Church is not as liberal as the congregation.

"Many of us looking at this case see it as pretty much open and shut," said the Rev. James V. Heidinger, publisher of Good News magazine, which promotes a more orthodox view of United Methodism. Heidinger pointed out that the church's rule barring homosexuals who are not celibate from the ministry has been challenged at every quadrennial convention since it was passed in 1972: "But each time it has held and been reaffirmed." Read More

November 28, 2004: Gay Minister to Face Jury of Methodist Peers

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18635-2004Nov28.html?sub=AR

Washington Post - Washington,DC,USA

The new rules are so tight, in fact, that it is uncertain what defense Stroud will be able to present, a matter that her lawyers have been discussing in private with retired Bishop Joseph H. Yeakel of Smithsburg, Md., who will preside over the trial.

"We're really not clear at this juncture what the defense will be, and I'm not at liberty to discuss it," Stroud said in an interview. "But it's not just about winning or losing for me. It's about being faithful to what I believe."

Some experts on church law said Stroud's counsel could argue that the rule against gay clergy contradicts the church's constitution, which says "the Word of God is preached by persons divinely called" and does not bar any group of people from ministry.

Alan Symonette, a lawyer in Stroud's congregation who is serving as her co-counsel, said he intends mainly "to introduce the jury to Beth [Stroud], who she is and how faithful she is to her calling."

Symonette said a parade of parishioners is ready to testify that she "has been universally and enthusiastically accepted" by the congregation, which has promised to continue to employ her, even if she is removed from the ordained clergy and can no longer perform baptisms or administer the sacrament of Holy Communion.

To try to prevent the jury from acting solely on personal sympathy, Yeakel asked all 66 clergy members in the potential jury pool whether they could enforce the church's rules in good conscience. Fourteen were dismissed when they said they could not, according to the bishop's assistant, David Fife. Read More

November 29, 2004: Minister facing trial for her sexual identity

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/10293155.htm

philly.com (subscription) - Philadelphia,PA,USA

"I don't really expect to win a verdict that will allow me to keep my ministerial credentials. It would be an extraordinary working of the Holy Spirit," Stroud said last night from the altar area of her congregation.

Then she said, "I'm not ruling that out." Several hundred worshippers at a special service for her at First United Methodist Church of Germantown, Germantown Avenue near Walnut Lane, where she serves as associate pastor, burst into applause.

<snip>

It is a rule reaffirmed at the church's general conference in Pittsburgh last summer and is one that has sharply divided Methodists, as it has many other denominations, for several decades.

First United Methodist Church and hundreds of others, call themselves Reconciling Congregations, openly welcoming gay/lesbian members and, in some cases, quietly employing them as ministers.

<snip>

"History is on our side," said Bill Ewing, a lawyer and longtime Mount Airy activist, after he had ushered fellow First United Methodist members for what Stroud herself said may have been her final communion ceremony.

"I fully believe within a generation when the younger people are making the decisions, any exclusionary rules will be changed," Ewing said.

As broadly based denomination, Methodists have often encompassed the controversies and tensions of the nation, from slavery to temperance, from segregation to ordaining women.

"We hope to make people think twice" about homosexuality issues, said Alan Symonette, the church's co-lay leader, who will serve as civil lawyer at her trial.

<snip>

FUMCOG and its pastor, the Rev. Fred Day, knew she was a lesbian when she was hired in 1999. In 2003, Stroud met with the bishop who headed the church's Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, to say she was going public.

<snip>

As for Stroud, she will continue at FUMCOG, working with the confirmation class, on evangelism, running programs and preaching.

But without credentials, Stroud will no longer administer the sacraments of baptism and communion, which she conducted last night.

As she began, holding a loaf of bread overhead, she said, "This is my blood..." and stopped herself. "Maybe the last time and I do it wrong," she said, and it broke the tension. Beth Stroud's friends and supporters laughed, and she restarted, and the solemnity returned.

Then they all linked arms and sang "We Shall Overcome," as members of the confirmation class held up words to each ensuing verse. The anthem of a decades-old movement seemed compellingly transformed. Read More

NEWS FROM: Beth Stroud WebSite Trial Updates

Check this site for information this week.

http://www.bethstroud.info/casenews.php

UMNS: The Rev. Beth Stroud Trial Coverage

Check this site for information this week.

http://master.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=2&mid=6113

Links from this site:

News Archive

Overview: Questions and Answers

Denominational Statements on Homosexuality

Fact Sheet Regarding Case of Rev. Stroud

Media Advisory