A PBS documentary to air this week explores two years of the controversy leading up to the defrocking of a lesbian minister in Pennsylvania.

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"The Congregation," which premiers Wednesday on most PBS stations, goes behind the scenes at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown, a racially mixed urban church to focus on Rev. Beth Stroud, who disclosed in an April 2003 sermon she is a lesbian.

Filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond spent two years filming the church and its members during the period of upheaval that garnered national headlines, Zap2it.com said Monday.

The film shows how although members of the congregation were mostly supportive, Stroud was at odds with the United Methodist Book of Discipline, which forbids self-avowed practicing homosexuals from being ordained or appointed as clergy to its churches.

The two-hour film was completed before a 13-member jury of her peers earlier this month voted to revoke her ministerial credentials.