Irene "Beth" Stroud, right, with her partner, Chris Paige, after the ruling. (AP photo)

BEIJING, Nov. 1 -- The highest court in the United Methodist Church yesterday defrocked an openly lesbian minister in Philadelphia and reinstated a Virginia pastor who had been suspended for refusing to allow a gay man to become a member of his congregation.

 ;   The nine-member Judicial Council, the denomination's highest court, released its decisions after hearings last week at Houston's First United Methodist Church Westchase campus.

    The council ruled that the Rev. Irene "Beth" Stroud of Pennsylvania had violated church law that prohibits "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" in the clergy.

    It also reinstated the Rev. Edward H. Johnson, pastor of South Hill United Methodist Church in Virginia, who had been suspended by his bishop after refusing to add a gay man to the church membership roster.

    The series of decisions come at a time when disputes over the role of gay men and women in the clergy, and whether to bless same-sex unions, are roiling the mainline churches. The rulings served to reaffirm the Methodists' traditional stance against the ordination of "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals."

    Like many other Protestant denominations, the Methodist Church has been struggling with sexual issues for 30 years. Its legislative body, the General Conference, meets every four years and has, in recent sessions, reaffirmed the prohibition on "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" in the clergy by increasing margins.

    The ruling does not end the discussion about homosexual clergy, said the Rev. Thomas Hall, who argued the case against Stroud for the church's Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. But it does emphasize that churches and their clergy must abide by the rules of the denomination.

    (Agencies)