PUGHTOWN, Pa. - When the Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud told her congregation last year that she lives with a lesbian partner, she set the stage for the United Methodist Church's third trial under a law forbidding clergy who are "self-avowed practicing homosexuals."

Stroud could be defrocked if she loses the trial, which began Wednesday with a closed-door selection of 13 jurors from regional clergy.

Stroud says she realized she was a lesbian while attending Bryn Mawr College. After graduating from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, she was ordained and assigned in 1999 as associate pastor of Philadelphia's First United Methodist Church of Germantown.

Two years later, Stroud held a "covenant ceremony" with Chris Paige at Paige's Tabernacle United Church in Philadelphia, which is affiliated with both the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and United Church of Christ.

Stroud notified her Germantown congregation of the relationship in a sermon on April 27, 2003. "I know that by telling the truth about myself I risk losing my credentials," she said, but decided "my walk with Christ requires telling the whole truth."

Stroud said in an interview that if she is defrocked, the Germantown congregation has already promised that she can continue her current educational, pastoral and preaching work under lay status, though she would no longer be able to preside at baptisms or communion services.

"I'm aware that a lot of folks are watching this case," Stroud said, noting that she and her church have received hundreds of supportive letters, e-mails and phone calls. But "for me it really is a very personal faith issue."

The Rev. Thomas Hall of Exton, Pa., was assigned by the regional bishop to present the church's case. He said the trial involves "any denomination's authority to hold ministers accountable to the sacred trust they have agreed upon" when they were ordained.

The UMC's 1984 law barring "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" from the ministry was reaffirmed by a 72 percent vote at the Methodists' General Conference in May.

Given that language, conviction might seem automatic. But last March, a church court acquitted the Rev. Karen Dammann, a pastor in Washington state who also lives openly with a same-sex partner and the Methodists' national supreme court decided it had no power to review the verdict.

In the other such trial, the Rev. Rose Mary Denman of New Hampshire was defrocked in 1987.

Other denominations debating the gay clergy issue include the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The Episcopal Church's approval of a gay bishop has alienated U.S. conservatives and divided fellow Anglicans worldwide.