Gay ministers come out, risk defrocking

Gay ministers come out, risk defrocking

PlanetOut, CA –

Seventy-five LGBT United Methodist ministers from across the United States have signed a letter to their church leaders wading into the denomination's contentious debate about sexual orientation.

The letter released Tuesday was sent a week before the church's Judicial Council is scheduled to meet near Kansas City. Signatories hope to influence how the church interprets policy on sexual orientation.

Outing themselves with this letter, the ministers risk being defrocked, as happened to the Rev. Irene "Beth" Stroud less than a year ago. The United Methodist Church took away her right to be a minister when it ruled in October that she had violated the denomination's ban on "self-avowed, practicing homosexual" clergy.

Stroud, as an associate pastor at a church in Philadelphia, came out in 2003 because, she said, the closet held her back from her faith and she didn't like telling partial truths about herself. Someone filed a complaint when she came out, and the church defrocked her. Last year, moreover, the church's Judicial Council reinstated a Virginia pastor who had been suspended for forbidding a gay man from joining his congregation.

The pastors' letter mentions Stroud's struggle. It suggests that the church's action against her makes their lives as gay clergy very difficult. And it reminds gay clergy who do serve in silence that they are not alone.

"We serve our beloved United Methodist Church at great cost. We have experienced personally the church's power to harm as it rejects an elemental part of who we are," the letter said. "The UMC's official policy has pushed us, as well as our families, into closets of fear and isolation. We are not deceitful people, but the church has given us no choice. To deny God's calling in our lives would leave a void in the Body of Christ."

The signatures were collected by the Reconciling Ministries Network, a grassroots organization that works to enable full participation of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in the life of the United Methodist Church.

The letter reminds the church that its current policy of homophobia hurts not just gay clergy; it is hurting the church itself.

"If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing."

The letter ends with a quote from church founder John Wesley and a call to action: "We call upon our UM sisters and brothers to break the silence and bear witness to these truths. We implore you to do all in your power to support LGBT people and their families so that we may live our lives as ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ with integrity and without fear."