Pastor once defrocked over same-sex wedding to keep ministry

A United Methodist pastor who was temporarily defrocked last year after he officiated at his gay son’s wedding will retain his ministry after a final ruling Monday by the denomination’s highest court.

The ruling by the church’s Judicial Council in Memphis, Tenn., didn’t put to rest how the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination will deal with the roiling issue of gay marriage. It steered clear of expressing support for same-sex unions and was made on technical grounds regarding the Rev. Frank Schaefer’s original punishment.

Schaefer, who has been leading a Methodist congregation in Santa Barbara since last summer, expressed jubilation following the decision.

“Justice was done,” he said, commenting by phone while en route to Los Angeles from a speaking engagement at a church in Wisconsin. “This really signals the entire Methodist church is interested in keeping the dialogue going, rather than just outright banning a minister who speaks up for LGBT rights. This is definitely a step further down the road.”

Schaefer was stripped of his ordination in December after he refused to tell a church jury he would not preside over more same-sex marriages. Methodist law forbids clergy from blessing such unions.

But in June, a Methodist appeals court restored Schaefer’s ministerial rights. Shortly afterward he moved from his longtime home in Pennsylvania to Southern California, taking over a struggling Methodist church near the UC Santa Barbara campus.

The German-bred pastor’s legal ordeal wasn’t over. The June decision was appealed and the case turned over to the denomination’s highest court, the Judicial Council, which heard arguments last week and handed down Monday’s ruling, considered final.

The council affirmed Schaefer’s June reinstatement, noting that though he refused to promise to uphold church law “in its entirety,” he was being punished for something that had yet to happen.