A pastor who could be defrocked for officiating at his son’s same-sex wedding pleaded not guilty at a church trial to charges he broke his vows.
The Reverend Frank Schaefer, 51, could face punishment ranging from a reprimand to suspension to losing his minister’s credentials if a jury comprised of fellow Methodist clergy convicts him of breaking his pastoral vows by presiding over the 2007 ceremony in Massachusetts.
Schaefer’s supporters argue that church teaching on homosexuality is outmoded.
The church’s attorney, the Rev Christopher Fisher, told the 13-member jury in his opening statement that Rev Schaefer clearly violated the Methodist Book of Discipline by presiding over the 2007 ceremony in Massachusetts.
Rev Schaefer’s attorney, the Rev Robert Coombe, told the jury that Schaefer simply extended God’s love to his son, Tim Schaefer.
Rev Schaefer could have avoided a trial if he had agreed to never again perform a same-gender wedding, but he declined because three of his four children are gay.
Tim Schaefer, 29, will testify on his father’s behalf.
Several dozen of Rev Schaefer’s supporters held signs and sang hymns outside the gymnasium of a Methodist retreat camp, where the trial is taking place in Spring City, Pennsylvania.
The nation’s largest mainline Protestant denomination accepts gay and lesbian members, but it rejects the practice of homosexuality as “incompatible with Christian teaching.”
The issue has split the church. Hundreds of Methodist ministers have publicly rejected church doctrine on homosexuality, and some of them face discipline for presiding over same-sex unions.
Critics say those pastors are sowing division within the church and ignoring the church’s democratic decision-making process. Indeed, the denomination’s top legislative body, the 1000-member General Conference, reaffirmed the church’s 40-year-old policy on gays at its last worldwide meeting in 2012.
Tim Schaefer struggled as a teenager, aware of Methodist doctrine on homosexuality. He said he prayed every night that “God would make me normal, take this away from me.”
He contemplated suicide but knew it would devastate his family. He finally told his parents at age 17, and he said they accepted him completely.
Years later, Mr Schaefer knew he wanted his dad to perform his wedding ceremony.
“I remember thinking I have two choices: I can ask my dad and know I am putting him in a position … where he would risk his career, or I could not ask my dad and really risk hurting his feelings. I think he would have been devastated if I hadn’t asked him,” he said.
Frank Schaefer has said he informed his superiors in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference that he planned to officiate his son’s wedding, and again after the ceremony, which took place at a restaurant near Boston. He said he faced no discipline until April – about a month before the church’s six-year statute of limitations was set to expire – when one of his congregants filed a complaint.
Author: AP
Publication: perthnow.com.au
Date: 10 November 2013
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