The United Methodist Church on Thursday
defrocked Pennsylvania Pastor Frank Schaefer over officiating a gay
wedding.
Schaefer, pastor at Zion United
Methodist Church of Iona in Lebanon, presided over the 2007 wedding
of his son Tim Schaefer to another man in Massachusetts, which
legalized gay marriage in 2004.
Last month, a jury of 13 fellow pastors
convicted Schaefer of breaking church law and suspended him for 30
days.
On Monday, an unrepentant Schaefer, who
has three gay children, said that he planned to defy a church order
calling on him to reconcile his teachings with church doctrine or
surrender his credentials. He said that he could not uphold the
church's Book of Discipline, calling it discriminatory.
The AP reported that officials on
Thursday decided to defrock Schaefer.
“I cannot uphold those discriminatory
laws and the language in the United Methodist Church's Book of
Discipline that is hurtful and harmful to our homosexual brothers and
sisters,” Schaefer said during Monday's press conference in
Philadelphia.