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By Kathy L. Gilbert
June 24, 2014 | NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)

The Rev. Frank Schaefer had his ministerial credentials reinstated by a United Methodist regional appeals committee June 23, three days after a hearing held near Baltimore.

The denomination’s Northeastern Jurisdictional Committee on Appeals restored his credentials and ordered the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual (regional) Conference to compensate Schaefer for all lost salary and benefits dating from Dec. 19, 2013.

The former pastor of Iona (Penn.) United Methodist Church, Schaefer was defrocked after a November 2013 church trial found him guilty of violating The United Methodist Church’s Book of Discipline, the denomination’s law book, by conducting a same-sex marriage ceremony for his son. He also was found guilty of violating the church’s order and discipline.

In the penalty stage of the trial, the court suspended Schaefer from his ministerial duties for 30 days and declared that if he could not “uphold the Discipline in its entirety” at the end of the suspension, he would surrender his credentials. He refused to do that and, on Dec. 19, the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Board of Ordained Ministry asked him to give up his credentials.

In a statement immediately after the decision was released, Schaefer expressed happiness over his “refrocking” by the committee.

“I never did understand the severity of my punishment for an act of love for my son Tim,” Schaefer said. “The committee of appeals understood that my defrocking sought to penalize me not for what I did but for what I might do in the future.” 

The committee’s ruling said “errors of church law vitiate the penalty imposed by the Trial Court,” including “the mixing and matching of penalties that are designed to be distinct” and predicating the imposition of a penalty on “a future possibility, which may or may not occur, rather than a past or present act.”

Jen Ihlo, chair of the Appeals Committee, said she wished the decision-making process could have been more public.

“How we held our conversations could be a model for the church,” she said. “We ought to be able to have loving, respectful conversations about hard subjects and still part as friends.”

How the committee got to that point took time and effort of everyone on the committee.

In March, the committee met with a representative from JustPeace leading them through a process to help them stay focused and centered on their work. JustPeace was created in 1999 by the General Council on Finance and Administration to help find new ways of dealing with church conflict. Since 2004, it has worked as a separate entity in Washington, D.C.

“In hindsight,” said Ihlo, “this helped the committee bond together. It helped us build trust and respect for each other. I really appreciate the way our committee worked and how seriously we took our task.”

Ihlo said doing that groundwork was important as the committee moved forward. They became clear what their job was and what it wasn’t: to decide whether the penalty given Schaefer was in violation of church law.

In its written decision, the committee was unanimous that the defrocking penalty was, in fact, a violation of church law. Schaefer received that penalty for not being able to uphold the Book of Discipline “in its entirety.”

“You can’t punish someone for future behavior,” Ihlo said.

Ihlo said there were no “Twelve Angry Men” moments during the committee’s discussion, referring to the 1957 movie starring Henry Fonda. “The committee members were saying, ‘Help me understand where you’re coming from,’” said Ihlo. “At the end of the day, we parted ways saying, gosh, we hate to leave.”

The lessons learned, Ihlo said, were that it’s important to build trust and respect for one another before entering into hard conversations. “We spent a lot of time trying to understand each other, to know each other, as well as the matter before us,” she said.

Ihlo said she entered into the process having no idea what to expect.

“These committees don’t meet that often,” she said. “There was really no prototype to follow.”

Ihlo, a federal prosecutor who works for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., is a member of Dumbarton UMC in the District. She said the committee began its work in February.

“People were anxious,” she said, “nobody had done this before, and we hardly knew what the word ‘vitiate’ meant.”

Schaefer called the decision “a hopeful sign for our LGBTQ community” because the committee “recognized that I was wrongfully punished for standing with those who are discriminated against.” LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning individuals.

Many in the church already have been “moving toward love over legalism,” he pointed out.

“Indeed, people throughout The United Methodist Church, who invited me into their pulpits, sat with me at their dinner tables and supported my family with their donations, have refrocked me already. Their movement of love embraced me and together we are moving forward to bring about that day when our denomination no longer excludes any of God’s beloved children. And I will continue to work toward that goal.”

Gilbert is a multimedia reporter for United Methodist News Service in Nashville, Tenn. Erik Alsgaard contributed to this report.