Print
Close
Pa. Methodist pastor suspended for performing gay wedding set to learn his clerical fate
Published November 30, 2015
The Rev. Frank Schaefer, a United Methodist clergyman convicted of breaking church law for officiating at his son's same-sex wedding, speaks during a news conference, Monday, Dec. 16, 2013, at the Arch Street United Methodist Church in Philadelphia. Schaefer plans to defy a church order to surrender his credentials for performing a same-sex wedding. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) (The Associated Press)
A United Methodist pastor from central Pennsylvania is about to find out whether he'll be defrocked or allowed to continue his ministry after officiating at his son's same-sex marriage.
The Rev. Frank Schaefer of Lebanon has already been suspended. He's scheduled to meet with church officials Thursday morning in Norristown, a Philadelphia suburb.
Schaefer was told to resign from the clergy by Thursday if he could not follow the denomination's Book of Discipline.
Schaefer says the book discriminates against gay people. He says he won't voluntarily surrender his credentials and hopes the church has a change of heart.
Schaefer has planned an afternoon news conference. It will be held at a Methodist church in Philadelphia where an associate pastor was defrocked in 2005 for being in a lesbian relationship.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/pa-methodist-pastor-suspended-for-performing-gay-wedding-set-to-learn-his-clerical-fate