By Tricia L. Nadolny
Beth Stroud, a Methodist pastor, said she knew what to expect when she told her Philadelphia congregation in 2003 that she was a lesbian.
A church trial. A guilty verdict. And a vote to strip her minister credentials.
All three happened.
What shocked Stroud was the jury vote on her punishment: 7-6.
One shy of being able to serve as an openly homosexual pastor in the United Methodist Church.
A decade has passed since Stroud challenged the church, drawing intense national attention and supporters and protesters to her trial.
Now the Rev. Frank Schaefer of Lebanon faces a similar firestorm. On Nov. 18, Schaefer will be tried for presiding over his son’s 2007 marriage to a man.
Stroud, 43, will not attend the proceeding in Chester County. “I don’t necessarily know that I’d want to relive that again,” she said.
Read more at http://articles.philly.com/2013-11-06/news/43734107_1_beth-stroud-church-trial-united-methodist-church