The Methodist church’s highest court will decide later this month whether a minister who officiated his gay son’s wedding can keep his pastoral credentials.
The Rev. Frank Schaefer was defrocked following a church trial in southeastern Pennsylvania last year, then re-instated by an appeals panel in June. That decision was appealed to the Judicial Council, the church’s highest court.
The nine-member panel said on the Methodist Church’s website that it will hear oral arguments in the case Oct. 22 in Memphis, Tennessee.
The issue of gay marriage has long roiled the United Methodist Church, the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination. Hundreds of Methodist ministers have publicly rejected church policies that allow gay members but ban “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from becoming clergy and forbid ministers from performing same-sex marriages.
Traditionalists say clergy have no right to break church law just because they disagree with it. Some conservative pastors are calling for a breakup of the denomination, which has 12 million members worldwide, saying the split over gay marriage is irreconcilable.
Methodist church to hear appeal of pastor who officiated gay son’s wedding – LGBTQ Nation
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