A Methodist pastor in southeastern Pennsylvania will face a church trial on Nov. 18 for breaking church law by officiating his son’s 2007 wedding to another man.
The United Methodist church accepts gay congregants but rejects same-sex marriage, and church literature calls homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching,” the Associated Press reports. But Rev. Frank Schaefer officiated his son’s wedding anyway, “because I love him so much and didn’t want to deny him that joy.”
Schaefer faces anything from a reprimand to defrocking at his Monday trial. He could have avoided trial by promising not to perform any more same-sex weddings, but he declined because three of his four kids are gay.