Methodists Reinstate Minister Who Officiated At Son's Gay Marriage

By Scott Neuman

Published June 24, 2014 at 7:10 PM EDT

United Methodist minister Frank Schaefer (right) hugs the Rev. David Wesley Brown after a news conference Tuesday at First United Methodist Church of Germantown, Pa. Schaefer was reinstated by the church after being defrocked for presiding over his son's same-sex wedding ceremony.

A Methodist minister in Pennsylvania, who was defrocked last year for presiding over his son's same-sex wedding, has been reinstated by the church.

A nine-person appeals panel of the United Methodist Church ordered Frank Schaefer's pastoral credentials restored, saying "the jury that convicted him last year erred when fashioning his punishment," according to The Associated Press.

"I've devoted my life to this church, to serving this church, and to be restored and to be able to call myself a reverend again and to speak with this voice means so much to me," an exultant Schaefer told the AP.

He said he intends to work for gay rights "with an even stronger voice from within the United Methodist Church."

Schaefer, of Lebanon, Pa., was first suspended for having officiated at his son's 2007 wedding and subsequentlystripped of his pastoral credentials after he refused to uphold the Methodist ban on clergy performing same-sex marriages.