Defrocked PA Pastor Offered Job in California

Schaefer stands in front of Zion United Methodist Church of Iona in South Lebanon Township.

Rev. Frank Schaefer — the man who was defrocked by the Methodist Church last week after officiating the marriage of his gay son — has been offered a job Bishop Minerva G. Carcano to join the Church’s California-Pacific Annual Conference. If he accepts, he would serve over an area that covers California, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. LGBTQ Nation reports:

Carcano does not have the authority to restore Schaefer’s ministerial credentials but he said he would have most of the same rights and responsibilities as an ordained minister. Schaefer said it would not be a tenured appointment, unlike ordained ministers, and he would be paid less. …

Schaefer said that he has never met Carcano and first spoke to her when she called to offer him the position on Friday.

“It was such a feeling of welcome I sensed from her and just understanding and comfort,” he said. “For somebody like her, a bishop, to reach out to me and say, ‘you know what you did was absolutely right and we are proud of you,’ it just felt great.”

Carcano said in a statement on the California-Pacific Annual Conference’s website that the church’s position on homosexuality is wrong. Although the church accepts gay and lesbian members, it rejects homosexual acts as “incompatible with Christian teaching” and bars clergy from performing same-sex unions.

“I believe that the time has come for we United Methodists to stand on the side of Jesus and declare in every good way that the United Methodist Church is wrong in its position on homosexuality, wrong in its exclusion of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, and wrong in its incessant demand to determine through political processes who can be fully members of the body of Christ,” Carcano wrote.

Schaefer says he is “very, very seriously” considering the offer, but wants to make sure it works out with his family. You can read more on the story here.