|
| Former United Methodist pastor Frank Schaefer speaks with reporters after a news conference, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013, at First United Methodist Church of Germantown in Philadelphia. United Methodist church officials have defrocked Schaefer, who officiated his son's gay wedding in Massachusetts. |
PHILADELPHIA
(AP) -- The United Methodist church defrocked a pastor from central
Pennsylvania on Thursday for violating doctrine by officiating his son's
gay marriage, leaving the minister shocked and upset that he could be
punished for an "act of love."
Frank Schaefer
immediately appealed the penalty, which he believed was meted out
reluctantly by many members of the regional Board of Ordained Ministry.
"So
many of them came to me and they shook my hand and some hugged me, and
so many of them had tears in their eyes," Schaefer said. "They said, `We
really don't want to do this, you know that, don't you?'"
Board
members declined to comment after the private meeting at church offices
in Norristown, outside Philadelphia. But John Coleman, a spokesman for
the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the denomination, said Schaefer
left officials no choice after defying the order of a religious jury to
resign.
"When asked to surrender his
credentials as required by the verdict, he refused to do so," Coleman
said. "Therefore, because of his decision, the board was compelled by
the jury's decision to deem his credentials surrendered."
Schaefer
has led a congregation in the town of Lebanon more than a decade.
Earlier this year, a church member filed a complaint over Schaefer
performing the 2007 wedding of his gay son in Massachusetts, where
same-sex unions are legal.
Although the
Methodist church accepts gay and lesbian members, it rejects the
practice of homosexuality as "incompatible with Christian teaching" and
bars clergy from performing same-sex unions.
Last
month, a church jury suspended Schaefer for 30 days and said he should
use the time to decide whether he could uphold the church's Book of
Discipline. If he decided he could not, he was told to resign from the
clergy by Thursday.
Schaefer said he told
officials Thursday morning that he could not follow a book that he feels
is contradictory and biased against gay people.
He refused to voluntarily surrender his credentials when asked by the board president.
"To which she said, `Well, we're taking them.' And that was the end of it," Schaefer said.
The
issue has split the nation's largest mainline Protestant denomination
amid a rapid shift in public opinion. Schaefer's defrocking came on the
same day that New Mexico legalized same-sex marriage, joining 16 other
states and the District of Columbia; polls show that a majority of
Americans now support it.
Most other
Protestant denominations have decided their position on the issue one
way or another. But the Methodists, with about 7.7 million members in
the U.S. and many more overseas, remain divided. At their last national
meeting in 2012, delegates reaffirmed the church's 40-year-old policy on
gays.
But hundreds of Methodist ministers
have publicly rejected church doctrine on homosexuality, and some of
them face discipline for presiding over same-sex unions. Last month, in a
public challenge to church rules, a retired Methodist bishop officiated
at a wedding for two men in Alabama.
Schaefer had held out hope as late as Thursday morning that officials would have a change of heart.
"I
said to myself, `You know, I just can't see them taking my
credentials.' I mean, what I did was an act of love for my son. And they
did anyhow," he said.
Schaefer made his
remarks at a gay-friendly, or "reconciling," Methodist church in
Philadelphia. Despite the designation, regional Methodist officials
defrocked its associate minister Beth Stroud in 2004 after she told the
congregation that she was in a committed lesbian relationship.
This
week, Stroud told The Associated Press that public opinion has changed a
lot since then. While she recalled receiving a lot of empathy and
concern, there was also less surprise that she was put on trial and
ultimately lost her credentials, Stroud said.
Schaefer seems to be receiving the same type of support but with a measure of disbelief as well, she said.
"(There's)
a lot more shock and surprise that in 2013 a mainstream church would
put a pastor on trial for officiating at a same-sex wedding," said
Stroud, "particularly the wedding of his son."
