United Methodist pastor reinstated on appeal
In a surprising reversal, a Pennsylvania pastor who was defrocked last year after he officiated at his son’s same-sex wedding has been reinstated.
Frank Schaefer learned June 24 that his ministerial credentials will be restored after the church’s Northeastern Jurisdictional Committee on Appeals voted 8-1 in his favor.
The committee, which held a hearing June 20 near Baltimore, found that “errors of Church law” had been used in imposing the penalty against Schaefer.
