![Luis Henao Beth Stroud sheds a tear pondering what reinstatement would mean 20 years after she was defrocked from her job as a United Methodist pastor in Philadelphia, Sunday, May 12, 2024, at Turning Point United Methodist Church in Trenton, N.J. Delegates at a United Methodist conference recently struck down longstanding anti-LGBTQ bans and created a path for clergy ousted because of them to seek reinstatement. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao)](https://mapi.associatedpress.com/v2/items/d4510cd906aa4962958ed2a641743052/preview/preview.jpg?s=680x)
Beth Stroud sheds a tear pondering what reinstatement would mean 20 years after she was defrocked from her job as a United Methodist pastor in Philadelphia, Sunday, May 12, 2024, at Turning Point United Methodist Church in Trenton, N.J. Delegates at a United Methodist conference recently struck down longstanding anti-LGBTQ bans and created a path for clergy ousted because of them to seek reinstatement. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao)
![Shari Deangelo In this photo provided by the United Methodists of Eastern Pennsylvania, Rev. Dr. Beth Stroud, right, holds hands with Bishop John Schol after offering a prayer of blessing at the Wildwoods Convention Center, Wildwood, N.J., on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, as he prepares to retire in August. Twenty years ago, Stroud was defrocked as a pastor after telling her congregation that she was in a committed same-sex relationship. On Tuesday night, less than three weeks after the UMC repealed its anti-LGBTQ bans, she was reinstated. (Shari DeAngelo/United Methodists of Eastern Pennsylvania via AP)](https://mapi.associatedpress.com/v2/items/4abd66046190454cb3e6e4e091da992e/preview/preview.jpg?s=680x)
In this photo provided by the United Methodists of Eastern Pennsylvania, Rev. Dr. Beth Stroud, right, holds hands with Bishop John Schol after offering a prayer of blessing at the Wildwoods Convention Center, Wildwood, N.J., on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, as he prepares to retire in August. Twenty years ago, Stroud was defrocked as a pastor after telling her congregation that she was in a committed same-sex relationship. On Tuesday night, less than three weeks after the UMC repealed its anti-LGBTQ bans, she was reinstated. (Shari DeAngelo/United Methodists of Eastern Pennsylvania via AP)