Bishop Martin McLee, who oversees 462 churches in New York and Connecticut, held a press conference in White Plains March 10 to announce he will not pursue an ecclesiastical case against the Rev. Thomas Ogletree, an 80-year-old retired minister in the United Methodist Church, according to news reports.
Ogletree had officiated at his son's same-sex wedding (at the Yale Club in NYC). Ogletree is the retired dean of the Yale Divinity School.
The church wasn't so forgiving in December. Methodist officials in Pennsylvania defrocked Frank Schaefer for doing the same thing.
The lead complainant against Ogletree was the Rev. Randall C. Paige, pastor of Christ Church in Port Jefferson Station. Paige said he was dismayed by the decision.
"The impact of this settlement today will be that faithful United Methodists who support the church's teachings will feel ignored and will face their own crisis of conscience, as to whether they can continue to support a church that will not abide by its own rules," he said, according to ABC news.
According to the International Business Times, “'Defrocking' is a common term used to describe the dismissal or loss of the clerical state of a priest. A loss of the clerical state means the offender is forbidden from exercising any powers or rights granted via ordination. Priests can be defrocked for a number of reasons, but the punishment is considered the harshest penalty within the church."
What do you think? Is officiating at your child's same-sex wedding worth the harshest penalty in church law? Tell us in the comments.
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