Synod committee backs presbytery refusal to try homosexual minister By John H. Adams The Layman Online Tuesday, October 21, 2003 A synod committee has exonerated the Presbytery of Baltimore of any irregularities in the presbytery's dismissal of heresy charges against one of its members, the Rev. Donald Stroud, a homosexual who has repeatedly and publicly declared that he will not abide by the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA). In a 3,000-word report, an Administrative Review Committee of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic concluded that the presbytery committed no irregularities in its handling of charges against Stroud, by both a presbytery investigating committee and a presbytery court. The investigating committee had concluded that there was no basis for a trial of Stroud, a minister-member of the presbytery who works for That All May Freely Serve. A panel from the presbytery's Permanent Judicial Commission affirmed the finding of the investigating committee. The accusation against Stroud was made by Virginia lawyer Paul Rolfe Jensen, who called on the presbytery to determine that Stroud had "renounced the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church (USA)." If a trial of Stroud had resulted in such an order, he would have been stripped of his credentials as a PCUSA minister. By concluding that there was no basis for trial, the Baltimore Permanent Judicial Commission essentially halted the disciplinary case against Stroud, one of a number of ministers and elders who have said publicly – and repeatedly – that they will not obey church law. The review by the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic, which was limited to determining whether the presbytery had met constitutional requirements in its dismissal of the Stroud case, cannot be appealed. Most of what the synod committee said in its report was a summary of what had transpired in the Stroud case. However, it also addresses allegations raised by Jensen of conflict of interest by presbytery leaders who financially supported Stroud's work at That All May Freely Serve, a special-interest group that seeks the repeal of the denomination's "fidelity/chastity" ordination law. "The Rev. John Kazanjian, moderator of the [presbytery] IC, made a modest contribution to Stroud when Stroud moved to Baltimore in response to a request for funds for salary and living expenses but has made no further contributions nor attended any meetings of TAMFS," the synod report said. "Florence Henderson, another member of the IC, has made a modest contribution to TAMFS but is not alleged to have attended any of its meetings. Sam Jett, also a member of the IC, is not believed to have had any connection with TAMFS. The Rev. Roger Gench, the final member appointed to the IC, was pastor of a church connected with TAMFS but he moved from the Presbytery prior to any meetings of the IC and did not participate in any of its meetings or deliberations." Only one member of the synod committee, the Rev. C. Powell Sykes of Burlington, N.C., voted against the findings.

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