Here in in Pennsylvania, the Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud is fighting a ruling by the Methodist church to defrock her after she disclosed to her congregation that she was a lesbian in a long relationship with another woman. It's one of many simialar cases across the country in which the intensifying debate rages on within the denomination on the role of gay men and lesbians in the pews and in the pulpit. The highest judicial body of the United Methodist Church is expected to rule on them when it meets in Houston for one of its two annual gatherings, starting Oct. 27.
The United Methodist Church, the country's third-largest denomination, has struggled for 30 years to define and then further refine its stance on homosexuality. But in its effort to accommodate disparate views, it has fashioned a position that some clergy members say is ambiguous, even contradictory, and people are demanding clarification.
The church's official policy is to welcome all people, regardless of sexual orientation, into its congregations. Gay people can also serve in the clergy, as long as they are celibate. But church rules ban "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" from the ministry.
In the shadow of these cases, anxiety is growing among some Methodists that the church could split over homosexuality, as it did over slavery in the mid-1800's. The likely outcome, some clergy members said, is that those who oppose liberalizing the church's position on gays will leave.
The New York Times
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