The nine-person panel ordered the church to restore Frank Schaefer’s pastoral credentials, saying the jury that convicted him last year erred when fashioning his punishment. He was then transferred to the California conference of the church, effective July 1.
“I’ve devoted my life to this church, to serving this church, and to be restored and to be able to call myself a reverend again and to speak with this voice means so much to me,” an exultant Schaefer told The Associated Press, adding he intends to work for gay rights “with an even stronger voice from within the United Methodist Church.”
The church suspended Schaefer, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, for officiating his son’s 2007 wedding, then defrocked him when he refused to promise to uphold the Methodist law book “in its entirety,” including its ban on clergy performing same-sex marriages.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Defrocked Methodist Pastor Reinstated
The Rev. Frank Schaefer, formerly pastor of a United Methodist church in Pennsylvania, who was defrocked last year for officiating at the same-sex wedding of his own son, was reinstated to the ministry today by an appeals panel, reports the Washington Post:
3 comments:
While I am happy for Rev. Schaefer, I am also so fed up with the inability of Christian churches to get over their diverse and archaic interpretations of Scripture and constraining beliefs in "divine revelation" which cause so much grief and pain for LGBT persons and others who may not believe or conform to their particular form of religion. Hope Rev. Schaefer can do some good from within.
This is great news.
I'm sure the Abolitionists and early feminist proponents felt the same way, Frank. They had to fight uphill against "The Bible Says" just as we have. But somehow, eventually, religious-minded folk found a way around the more primitive Scripture passages in favor of the more generous, inclusive ones.
Like "In Jesus Christ, there is neither Greek nor Jew, male nor female, slave nor free . . . ."
Or straight or gay, I would add.
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