Bishop drops case on gay marriage

United Methodist bishop Martin D. McLee of New York announced he is dropping the case against a retired seminary dean who officiated at his gay son’s wedding. The bishop also called on March 10 for an end to church trials for clergy who breach rules against marrying same-sex couples.

The resolution of Thomas Ogletree’s case highlights an emerging dynamic in the United Methodist Church: some pastors in the country’s second-largest Protestant denomination can evade rules banning clergy from performing same-sex weddings, while others risk costly church trials and the loss of clergy credentials. Increasingly, those differences are geographically determined.

“Church trials produce no winners,” McLee said. They result in “harmful polarization and continue the harm brought upon our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.”