Bishop: No trials for clergy in same-sex wedding controversy

The Methodist pastors who jointly officiated a same-sex wedding last year in Philadelphia will not face church trials and the potential loss of their credentials.

But the decision is far from a green light for other clergy to break the church's same-sex marriage laws without fear of reprisal.

Bishop Peggy Johnson, in announcing the move, said future complaints regarding same-sex weddings would be handled "swiftly and with significant and appropriate consequences." Previously, Johnson has publicly grappled with enforcing laws she believes to be discriminatory.

"Though I may sympathize with the pastoral concerns of the respondents, it is unacceptable to disregard and disobey the Book of Discipline," said Johnson, who leads the church's Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

Johnson made the statement late Friday as she officially closed church proceedings against the 36 pastors who broke church law by blessing a same-sex wedding at Arch Street United Methodist Church last November. They did so in solidarity with Frank Schaefer, the Lebanon, Pa., pastor who was being put on trial after officiating his son's same-sex wedding.

Another group of local clergy filed a complaint against the pastors, initiating closed-door negotiations in an effort to stave off a trial. Last week, the divided sides decided to resolve the matter by engaging in a dialogue "designed to find ways that enable both groups to live together within the same communion with integrity," according to the agreement.

The resolution is sure to impact the Methodist Church, which is deeply divided over gay marriage. Bishops have been drawn into the fray as some pastors take a route of civil disobedience.

Schaefer - who was defrocked, reinstated, and will have a final hearing on his case later this month - has urged Johnson to call a moratorium on trials. But the bishop, who says the laws are discriminatory, has not become an advocate for change.

Schaefer on Monday said he was perplexed by Johnson's statement.

"She says one thing one day and then changes her mind or says another thing that's opposite to what she just said," he said.

John Lomperis, Methodist director of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative think tank, applauded the decision.

"When you have someone who's been . . . as much in the spotlight as Bishop Johnson all of the sudden do such a reversal of this, I think this really dampens the sense of momentum there has been for the disobedience movement," he said.

The Rev. Robin Hynicka, a pastor at Arch Street United Methodist Church and one of the clergy involved in last year's ceremony, said he agreed to the resolution because it will facilitate a conversation moving forward.

"For the church really to change . . . it's going to have to come from the kind of dialogue that we're now going to enter into with the folks that we have such a difference of opinion with," he said.