Lebanon, Pa. — Seven years after officiating at the wedding of his gay son, Frank Schaefer has been reinstated as a clergyman in the United Methodist Church (UMC).
The denomination’s top court upheld a June decision to reinstate Schaefer’s ministerial credentials after a trial court defrocked the Pennsylvania pastor in 2013.
Schaefer appealed and was reinstated by a vote of a regional court, the Northeastern Jurisdiction Committee on Appeals. At that time Schaefer said, “I will not refuse ministry to anyone. I will never be silent again. I will always speak for my LGBT brothers and sisters.”
In the ruling released Oct. 27 the church’s top court upheld Schaefer’s appeal while acknowledging “some within the church do not support this outcome today,” according to United Methodist News Service.
Others are celebrating. The Reconciling Ministries Network executive director Matt Berryman said in a press release it was “a step on the journey toward justice” for a church that “still has a long way to go.”
Schaefer, former pastor of Zion United Methodist Church, Iona, Lebanon, Pa., has since moved to the UMC’s California-Pacific Conference and ministers in Santa Barbara.
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