Vanguard News Network
VNN Media
VNN Digital Library
VNN Reader Mail
VNN Broadcasts

Old November 10th, 2013 #1
The Bobster
Banned
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Filthydelphia
Posts: 10,095
Default Ministers Support Colleague at Same-Sex Wedding Ceremony

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/...231346151.html

Ministers Support Colleague at Same-Sex Wedding Ceremony
Sunday, Nov 10, 2013 | Updated 9:52 AM EST

About 50 ministers are giving their symbolic support to a colleague facing sanctions from the Methodist church by participating in a same-sex wedding ceremony.

The wedding in Philadelphia on Saturday was held about a week before Rev. Frank Schaefer of Lebanon will face a church trial for officiating over his son's marriage to another man.

The Philadelphia Inquirer says the clergy filled the front of a Methodist church in the city Saturday, blessing the marriage in defiance of church law.

A spokesman for the church's eastern Pennsylvania conference isn't commenting about whether any of the participants may face discipline. Most of the 50 are Methodist ministers.
 
Old June 24th, 2014 #2
The Bobster
Banned
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Filthydelphia
Posts: 10,095
Default

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/...232261371.html

Pastor Faces Church Trial Over Gay Marriage
By Michael Rubinkam | Monday, Nov 18, 2013 | Updated 4:48 AM EST

A Pennsylvania pastor charged under United Methodist law with officiating his son's same-sex marriage is scheduled to go on trial Monday.

The Rev. Frank Schaefer, 51, could be defrocked if a jury comprised of fellow Methodist clergy convicts him of breaking his pastoral vows by officiating the 2007 ceremony in Massachusetts. Schaefer's supporters argue that church teaching on homosexuality is outmoded.

"Public opinion has changed very rapidly,'' said the pastor's son, Tim Schaefer, 29. ``I hope this leads to a renewed conversation to revisit these policies to see if they are a little archaic.''

The nation's largest mainline Protestant denomination accepts gay and lesbian members, but rejects the practice of homosexuality as ``incompatible with Christian teaching.'' Clergy who perform same-sex unions risk punishment ranging from a reprimand to suspension to losing their minister's credentials.

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-gender 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 1,000-member General Conference, reaffirmed the church's 40-year-old policy on gays at its last worldwide meeting in 2012.

The Methodists have set aside three days for Schaefer's trial, to be held at a church retreat in Spring City, Pa.

Tim Schaefer, of Hull, Mass., will testify on his father's behalf.

"(The defense wants) to highlight how hurtful the policy of the church is toward the LGBT community,'' he said.

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. Schaefer finally told his parents at age 17, and he said they accepted him completely.

Years later, 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.

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.

A Methodist trial resembles a secular trial in many ways, with counsel representing each side, a judge and jury, opening statements and closing arguments, and testimony and evidence.

The 13-member jury, called a ``trial court,'' will be selected from a pool of 35. It takes at least nine votes to convict. If Schaefer is convicted, the trial moves to a penalty phase, with the same jury settling on a punishment. At least seven members of the jury must agree on the penalty.

Schaefer can appeal a conviction, but neither the church nor the person who brought the charge may appeal an acquittal.
 
Old June 24th, 2014 #3
The Bobster
Banned
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Filthydelphia
Posts: 10,095
Default

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/201...-sex-marriage/

Pastor Found Guilty Of Violating Church Law For Officiating Same-Sex Marriage
November 18, 2013 6:00 PM
By Ileana Diaz

SPRING CITY, Pa. (CBS) —A Pennsylvania pastor who officiated a same sex marriage has reportedly been found guilty of “violating the church’s law” and “breaking the law and order of the United Methodist Church.”

Earlier on Monday, church members sang prayers outside for Pastor Frank Schaefer.

He was being tried by the United Methodist Church after he officiated the marriage of his son to another man in a small ceremony in Massachusetts, a state where same-sex marriage is legal.

Michelle Bartlow, a local official of the Methodist Church said, “Our law of the Church states he can’t perform same-sex union and it’s alleged he did.”

The pastor took the stand and admitted he did it out of love for his son back in 2007, but it wasn’t until April of 2013 that a church member, who attends once a year, filed a complaint against Schaefer and prompted the church trial.

Bartlow questioned, “Were there circumstances around his violation that would mitigate the violation of law?”

Pastor Schaefer could lose his collar, so Methodists traveled from Illinois and Ohio to be there for him, and they were wearing stolls as support.

Some supporters of Schaefer were brought to tears by the situation.

Ed Hoar, a church member said, “It’s the gap between what I feel the church’s mission should be, and what it actually is in these acts.”

Hoar was present nine years ago after lesbian minister Beth Stroud was defrocked by the United Methodist Church, and he said this is equally upsetting.

“I believe the Church is supposed to be advocates for the marginalized and the oppressed and these particular acts by the Church are making people marginalized and making them oppressed.”

The trial could have been avoided if Schaefer agreed to never perform a same-sex wedding again but Schaefer chose to fight the charges and plead not guilty. He explained that three of his four children are gay.

Since Pastor Schaefer has allegedly been found guilty, the jury can decide to remove his certification or go with penalty as small as a few days of suspension.
 
Old June 24th, 2014 #4
The Bobster
Banned
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Filthydelphia
Posts: 10,095
Default

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/201...-sex-marriage/

UPDATE: Methodist Minister Suspended 30 Days For Officiating Son’s Same-Sex Marriage
November 19, 2013 9:00 PM
By Ileana Diaz and Todd Quinones

SPRING CITY, Pa., (CBS) – A Methodist minister has been suspended 30 days for officiating his son’s same-sex wedding.

The Rev. Frank Schaefer has been suspended for 30 days and he also has to agree to stop performing same-sex marriages. That is something he has told Eyewitness News that he absolutely will not do. He says he’s prepared to accept the full consequences and he believes that will lead to him at some point being defrocked.

(Quinones: ) “You expect to eventually be defrocked given the verdict today?”

(Schaefer: ) “I guess that’s what that means.”

Rev. Frank Schaefer and supporters held an impromptu prayer gathering after his 30-day suspension was issued. A jury made up of clergy from the United Methodist Church reached that decision late Tuesday night. On Monday, the jury found Schaefer guilty of breaking his pastoral vows for officiating his son’s same-sex wedding in Massachusetts in 2007 (See Related Story).

“The book of discipline of the United Methodist Church says that our ministers are not to officiate at same-sex weddings and they are not to be done in our churches,” Rev. Christopher Fischer, of the Council For The Methodist Church said.

Schaefer is a pastor of a Methodist church in Lebanon. At the end of his 30-day suspension, the jury also ruled that Schaefer must stop officiating same-sex marriages or surrender his ministerial duties. That is something Schaefer says he absolutely will not do, calling the Bible’s message of a man should not lay down with another man antiquated.

“That same chapter in Leviticus also calls us to not eat pork or seafood, shrimp, it calls us to stone those that commit adultery. We don’t do any of the other things,” Schaefer said.

Those that know the pastor are divided. He had a strong support system outside of where the jurors had been deliberating, but some of his church members like Christina Watson believe pastors must follow the law.

“It’s a tough one, but it was wrong and to not defrock him sends a message that would be hurtful in the long run,” Watson said.

The pastor was asked by the church to never perform another same-sex marriage, but he said he couldn’t out of love and support for his four children, three of whom are gay.

“We are proud to stand by Pastor Frank and regardless of the outcome we know this will affect many people in the LGBT community,” Clydette Overton, pastoral assistant at Iona United Methodist Church said.
 
Old June 24th, 2014 #5
The Bobster
Banned
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Filthydelphia
Posts: 10,095
Default

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/201...rriage-rebuke/

Pa. Methodist Minister Says He Won’t Quit, Even After Same-Sex Marriage Rebuke
December 16, 2013 4:15 PM
By Michelle Durham

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Clergy and church members from all over the area gathered today at Arch Street United Methodist Church, on North Broad Street, to show their support for the Rev. Frank Schaefer, the minister found guilty last month by the Eastern Pennsylvania Methodist Conference for officiating at his son’s 2007 marriage to another man in violation of the church’s United Methodist Book of Discipline.

Schaefer received a 30-day suspension following the ruling and was given the time to see if he could continue to minister in accordance with the Book of Discipline.

Today, he explained that he found it impossible to do so.

“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 in the church. I just cannot,” he said.

Schaefer says he honestly doesn’t believe anyone can, because of the way they are written.

With three of four of his children being gay , Schaefer said he cannot turn his back on his family but on the flip side, he said he wasn’t going to simply throw in the towel and leave the Methodist ministry.

“This may come as a surprise to everybody: I cannot in good conscience surrender my credentials voluntarily. I cannot. Because I feel called to be a minister.”

Schaefer says this situation has taken a personal toll on him and his family, but he also feels that he is representing the needs of the LGBT members of the church and he intends to continue.

If stripped of his credentials, he says, he’ll pursue other ministerial options, but wouldn’t elaborate on what those might be. He says he prefers instead to focus on the situation at hand.

Schaefer is scheduled to return on Thursday to the Eastern Pennsylvania Methodist Conference, with the decision he announced today. After that, he will await their response.

Officials of the Eastern Pennsylvania Methodist Conference issued a statement saying there would be no substantive comment until after Rev. Schaefer’s meeting with the board on Thursday.
 
Old June 24th, 2014 #6
The Bobster
Banned
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Filthydelphia
Posts: 10,095
Default

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/201...g-gay-wedding/

Pennsylvania Methodist Pastor Defrocked After Performing Gay Wedding
December 19, 2013 10:32 AM



NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Church officials have defrocked a United Methodist pastor from Pennsylvania who officiated his son’s gay wedding in Massachusetts.

The Rev. Frank Schaefer of Lebanon had already been suspended. On Thursday, he met with church officials to determine whether he would continue as a pastor.

Schaefer was told to resign from the clergy by Thursday if he could not follow the denomination’s Book of Discipline. But Schaefer says the book discriminates against gay people and says he wouldn’t voluntarily surrender his credentials.

Church spokesman John Coleman says officials decided to defrock him.

Schaefer left the short meeting with church officials without commenting but planned to address the matter later Thursday.
 
Old June 24th, 2014 #7
The Bobster
Banned
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Filthydelphia
Posts: 10,095
Default

http://www.myfoxphilly.com/story/242...ng-offered-job

Pa. pastor defrocked over gay wedding offered job
Posted: Dec 21, 2013 7:53 PM EST
Updated: Dec 21, 2013 7:57 PM EST

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A United Methodist pastor from central Pennsylvania who was defrocked after officiating his son's gay wedding has been invited by a California Methodist bishop to serve in her region.

Frank Schaefer says he is deciding whether to accept the offer from Bishop Minerva G. Carcano (car-CAHN'-yo) to join the California-Pacific Annual Conference. The region includes California, Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands.

Carcano does not have the authority to restore his credentials but he says he would have the same rights.

Schaefer on Friday appealed the decision of the church's regional Board of Ordained Ministry to defrock him.

A church jury suspended him for 30 days last month and told him to decide whether he would uphold the church's Book of Discipline or resign. Schaefer refused to surrender his credentials.
 
Old June 24th, 2014 #8
The Bobster
Banned
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Filthydelphia
Posts: 10,095
Default

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/201...ng-punishment/

Defrocked Methodist Pastor Appealing Punishment
June 18, 2014 11:23 AM



PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Frank Schaefer lost his job but not his voice.

Defrocked by the United Methodist Church six months ago for officiating his son’s same-sex wedding, Schaefer has gained a following among reformers who want the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination to loosen its policies on homosexuality.

He’s told his story dozens of times to largely sympathetic (queer) audiences around the country: How his son came out to him as a teenager who had contemplated suicide. How he hid the 2007 wedding from his conservative Pennsylvania congregation, fearing it would sow division. How he finally decided — in the midst of his high-profile church trial last fall — to become an outspoken advocate for gay rights at a time when his denomination is bitterly divided over the issue.

After his trial and conviction, “I thought I had lost everything,” recalled Schaefer, 52. “There was a moment of pain and depression and the next thing I knew, I was catapulted . I have more opportunities now than I ever did.”

Except the right to call himself a Methodist minister.

“I would like to get my credentials back,” said Schaefer, who will appear before a church panel in Baltimore this week to argue that his punishment was illegal under church law. “I’m hoping for a ‘re-frocking.’”

In little more than six months, Schaefer has become a public face of the movement to change church policy on homosexuals. The Methodist church accepts gay and lesbian members but rejects sex outside of heterosexual marriage as “incompatible with Christian teaching.” Openly gay people may not serve as clergy, and ministers are forbidden from performing same-sex marriages.

The issue has roiled the Methodist church for more than 40 years, but the conflict between theological conservatives and liberals has intensified recently. Hundreds of Methodist ministers have publicly rejected church doctrine on homosexuality, while traditionalists say they have no right to break church law just because they disagree with it. Some conservative pastors are calling for a breakup of the denomination, which has 12 million members worldwide, saying the split over gay marriage is irreconcilable.

“The church is a little shell-shocked right now,” Schaefer said.

Church officials put the German-born preacher on trial in southeastern Pennsylvania after one of his congregants in Lebanon filed a complaint against him, accusing him of ignoring his pastoral vows by presiding over his son’s ceremony in Massachusetts.

Schaefer could have avoided the trial — and, after his conviction, kept his ordination — by promising he wouldn’t perform another same-gender wedding. But he refused, declaring he would officiate more gay marriages if asked.

His stand galvanized gay rights activists within the church, and he’s become a fixture on the lecture circuit. In between appearances, Schaefer wrote a book, “Defrocked,” that will be released later this month by Chalice Press. A documentary film crew has been following him around and a Philadelphia theater company is developing a play about him.

But Schaefer still considers himself a country preacher, and he wants another congregation to call his own. He will argue before a nine-member Committee on Appeals on Friday that his defrocking was improper because it was based on the assumption that he would break church law in the future.

“His return from suspension cannot be conditioned on his good behavior,” said his clergy counsel, the Rev. Scott Campbell. “You cannot penalize people for what they might do. The penalty needs to be related to what he has done.”

A decision by the appeals panel is expected as early as Saturday. Campbell said it’s likely the losing side will appeal to the Judicial Counsel, the denomination’s highest court. At least three other Methodist pastors have been tried for performing same-sex marriages, but none of their cases made it to the high court.

Even if the Judicial Counsel weighs in, though, the Schaefer case is unlikely to have broader implications for a denomination so intractably divided, said the Rev. Rob Renfroe, president of a theologically conservative Methodist movement called Good News.

“We are in complete chaos right now, and having the Judicial Counsel rule appropriately will not change the chaos,” he said. “It’s not going to stop progressives from breaking the Book of Discipline, and it’s not going to lure traditionalists into any false sense that this is taken care of.”
 
Old June 24th, 2014 #9
The Bobster
Banned
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Filthydelphia
Posts: 10,095
Default

It gets worse.

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/201...rs-defrocking/

Methodist Panel Overturns Pastor’s Defrocking
June 24, 2014 1:22 PM



PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A pastor who presided over his son’s same-sex wedding ceremony and vowed to perform other gay marriages if asked can return to the pulpit after a United Methodist Church appeals panel on Tuesday overturned a decision to defrock him.

A nine-person appeals panel ordered the church to restore Frank Schaefer’s pastoral credentials, saying the jury that convicted him of breaking church law erred when fashioning his punishment.

The church suspended Schaefer, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, last year for officiating his son’s 2007 wedding. It then defrocked him because he wouldn’t promise never to preside over another gay ceremony.

Schaefer appealed, arguing the decision was wrong because it was based on an assumption he would break church law in the future.

The appeals panel, which met in Linthicum, Maryland, last week to hear the case, upheld a 30-day suspension that Schaefer has already served and said he should get back pay dating to when the suspension ended in December.

The jury’s punishment was illegal under church law, the appeals panel concluded, writing in its decision that “revoking his credentials cannot be squared with the well-established principle that our clergy can only be punished for what they have been convicted of doing in the past, not for what they may or may not do in the future.”

The topic of gay marriage is contentious in the Methodist Church. Recently, hundreds of ministers have spoken out against the church’s doctrine on homosexuality, which allows for gay members but bars “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from becoming clergy, and forbids ministers from performing same-sex marriages.

Schaefer was charged after a member of his congregation complained to the church about his officiating his son’s wedding.

Schaefer planned an afternoon news conference in Philadelphia to discuss the decision.

The church can appeal the decision to its highest court, the Judicial Council.
 
Old June 29th, 2014 #10
Karl Radl
The Epitome of Evil
 
Karl Radl's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: The Unseen University of New York
Posts: 3,130
Default

Hang the fucker and his 'gay' children.
__________________
 
Reply

Share


Thread
Display Modes


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:11 PM.
Page generated in 0.11814 seconds.