PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A pastor who presided over his son’s same-sex wedding ceremony and vowed to perform other gay marriages if asked can return to the pulpit after a United Methodist Church appeals panel on Tuesday overturned a decision to defrock him.
A nine-person appeals panel ordered the church to restore Frank Schaefer’s pastoral credentials, saying the jury that convicted him of breaking church law erred when fashioning his punishment.
The church suspended Schaefer, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, last year for officiating his son’s 2007 wedding. It then defrocked him because he wouldn’t promise never to preside over another gay ceremony.
Schaefer appealed, arguing the decision was wrong because it was based on an assumption he would break church law in the future.
The appeals panel, which met in Linthicum, Maryland, last week to hear the case, upheld a 30-day suspension that Schaefer has already served and said he should get back pay dating to when the suspension ended in December.