The Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church, the highest court in the 8-million-member denomination, has defrocked a lesbian minister for violating the church's ban on "self-avowed, practicing homosexual" clergy. The text of the Judicial Council's decision was posted Monday afternoon on the Web site of the United Methodist Church.
Eight of the nine members of the panel participated in the ruling, six favoring defrocking the Irene "Beth" Stroud, 35, and two issuing a dissent. The Judicial Council was ruling on an appeal from the Northeast Jurisdiction Committee of Appeals, which had overturned a previous ruling that Stroud could no longer serve as a minister in the United Methodist Church.
No comments:
Post a Comment