SPRING CITY, Pa. (AP) – Frank Schaefer gets to keep calling himself a Methodist pastor – at least for the next 30 days.
The United Methodist clergyman was convicted of breaking church law for officiating at his son’s same-sex wedding in 2007, he was suspended Tuesday, Nov. 19.
He was ordered by a jury of his fellow pastors to surrender his credentials in a month if he can’t bring himself to adhere to the laws of the church’s Book of Discipline.
The church “needs to stop judging people based on their sexual orientation,” he told jurors. “We have to stop the hate speech. We have to stop treating them as second-class Christians.”
His son, Tim Schaefer, said he hoped his father’s trial would start a larger conversation in the denomination.
Schaefer donned a rainbow-colored stole on the witness stand and told jurors it symbolized his commitment to the cause.
