Frank Schaefer on Tuesday praised a
decision allowing him to return to the pulpit.
Schaefer, who had until recently been
the pastor of Zion United Methodist Church of Iona in Lebanon,
Pennsylvania, presided over his son Tim Schaefer's wedding to another
man in Massachusetts in 2007.
Officials last year defrocked Schaefer,
who has three gay children, after he called the church's position
discriminatory and refused to recant.
A United Methodist Church panel on
Tuesday reversed the conviction, saying it was too harsh, and
reinstated Schaefer.
(Related: Methodist
panel reinstates Frank Schaefer, who was defrocked over gay wedding.)
Speaking to reporters in Philadelphia,
Schaefer said the message behind the ruling was “the church is
changing.”
“And that is good news for
everybody,” he said.
Schaefer took out a rainbow-colored
stole from his jacket and vowed his continued support for the LGBT
community.
“I am affirming that vow today,”
Schaefer said. “As an ordained minister in the United Methodist
Church I will never be silent again. I will always speak with and
for my LGBTQ brothers and sisters in the church and beyond.”