Defrocked UMC pastor reinstated after LGBTQ bans lifted
Beth Stroud (right) hugs Bishop John Schol after she was reinstated as UMC clergy on May 21 during a closed clergy session of the Eastern Pennsylvania annual conference in Wildwood, New Jersey. (Photo by Shari DeAngelo, courtesy of the UMC Eastern Pennsylvania Conference)
On May 3, its final day, the United Methodist Church’s general conference voted to allow for the reinstatement of clergy who previously were defrocked under the denomination’s LGBTQ bans.
About three weeks later, on the first evening of the Eastern Pennsylvania annual conference, a closed session of about 200 ordained clergy voted overwhelmingly to readmit former clergywoman Irene Elizabeth “Beth” Stroud as a full member of its body.
Stroud’s ministerial orders as an elder were removed in 2004 after a church trial in which she admitted to being in a committed relationship with another woman.
