Frank Schaefer

Three days before the international Methodist church will implement a harsh anti-LGBTQ policy, this church will affirm people’s wedding vows.

All people under God have the same sacred worth — even if the United Methodist Church doesn’t practice it.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Methodist pastor who was disciplined after he officiated at the wedding of his gay son will be allowed to remain an ordained minister. The Judicial Council of the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination ruled Monday that a Pennsylvania church jury was wrong to defrock Frank Schaefer last year after he would not…

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Methodist pastor who became a gay rights activist after he was disciplined for officiating at his son’s wedding to another man will soon find out whether he can remain an ordained minister in the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination. The Rev. Frank Schaefer was suspended and then defrocked last year following …

PHILADELPHIA — The Methodist church’s highest court will decide later this month whether a minister who officiated his gay son’s wedding can keep his pastoral credentials. The Rev. Frank Schaefer was defrocked following a church trial in southeastern Pennsylvania last year, then re-instated by an appeals panel in June. That decision was appealed …

PHILADELPHIA — A Methodist minister ousted and then reinstated after performing his son’s gay marriage said Friday that a church official is appealing his refrocking. The Rev. Frank Schaefer said he is disappointed to learn of the appeal, but not surprised. Schaefer is moving to a California diocese this week after his decision to officiate at his son’s 2007 …

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania pastor who broke church law by presiding over his son’s same-sex wedding ceremony and then became an outspoken activist for gay rights can return to the pulpit after a United Methodist Church appeals panel on Tuesday overturned a decision to defrock him. The nine-person panel ordered the church to restore…

LINTHICUM, Md. — A United Methodist pastor on Friday asked a church appeals panel to overturn a decision to defrock him for refusing to promise to uphold the church’s law, which bans ministers from performing same-sex marriages. Frank Schaefer of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, had his ministerial credentials stripped last year after a trial jury found …

Frank Schaefer lost his job but not his voice. Defrocked by the United Methodist Church six months ago for officiating his son’s same-sex wedding, Schaefer has gained a following among reformers who want the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination to loosen its policies on homosexuality.

NEW YORK — The dispute among United Methodists over recognition of same-sex couples has lapsed into a doctrinal donnybrook, pitting clergy who are presiding at gay weddings in defiance of church law against proponents of traditional marriage who are trying to stop them.