Rev. Frank Schaefer, the United Methodist minister who was defrocked in December for officiating the wedding of his son and husband, has appealed the ruling. An appeal will be heard in June of this year.
The Washington Post reports:
The decision to hear his appeal is procedural and doesn’t indicate the committee’s chances of approving it, Jen Ihlo, its president, wrote Tuesday in an e-mail.
Schaefer, a small-town pastor who has three gay children, drew national attention last fall when he was put on trial by a Methodist panel and found guilty of violating the denomination’s Book of Discipline. He is the first in a cluster of pastors facing trials for participating in same-sex marriages, a violation of Methodist doctrine but a topic on which Methodists and their clergy are deeply divided.
Since Schaefer's defrocking, New York Bishop Martin McLee and Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Ogletree announced that the church was dropping the case against Dr. Ogletree for officiating at his son’s wedding.
At the same time, An Act of Love, a documentary film about Rev. Frank Schaefer is in its last 24 hours in a Kickstarter campaign. NCIS star Pauley Perrette has recently signed on as an executive producer to the film project. Visit them to help share the story of Rev. Schaefer, even as we continue to see what the end might be for this affirming pastor.