Lesbian Minister De-frocked

An openly lesbian Methodist minister was stripped of her credentials in a juried ecclesiastical trial. Although the jury vote was 12 to 1 to convict her of violating Methodist discipline, the vote to expel her from the clergy was only 7 to 6. The liberal congregation in Philadelphia PA where she served for the past five years has offered to employ her as a lay associate. In a similar case earlier this year in Seattle, another lesbian minister in the same denomination was acquitted.