A United Methodist bishop who oversees the pastor suspended for officiating his son’s same-sex wedding issued differing statements on the issue in a matter of hours, giving an unusual behind-the-scenes look at the sensitivity surrounding the case. 
 
 A church jury last month told the Rev. Frank Schaefer, of Lebanon, Pa., to appear this Thursday before a clergy board and tell them if he can uphold the Methodist book of doctrine “in its entirety,” or else turn over his credentials. 
 
 At a news conference Monday, Schaefer said he can’t agree to uphold the denomination’s Book of Discipline, which he said contains “discriminatory provisions and language that is hurtful and harmful to our homosexual brothers and sisters.” He also said that he does not plan to surrender his credentials and vowed to try to remain in the Methodist Church as an advocate for gay equality. 
 
 Schaefer’s bishop released a statement Monday that seemed empathetic to Schaefer’s characterization of the Book of Discipline. 
 
 “Several statements in our Book of Discipline are discriminatory (forbidding ordination of homosexual persons, forbidding the performing of same-gender marriages and considering the practice of homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching). There appear to be contradictions between the many affirming statements (mentioned earlier) and these statements. This has led to confusion by many from the outside of the church wondering how we can talk out of two sides of our mouth,” read part of the statement from Peggy A. Johnson, bishop of Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, which includes some 900 churches around the greater Philadelphia area. 
 
 By the end of the day, however, Johnson posted a revised statement on her blog with different language. 
 
 “Several statements in our Book of Discipline may seem discriminatory if construed as prohibitions against persons rather than practices that the church has found objectionable. Some may see these prohibitions as contradictory to the many affirming statements about the rights and sanctity of all people. The Discipline is intended to be clear and fair, although admittedly, it is not a perfect document.” 
 
 The second statement also changed the language around her views on church trials. The the statement said: 
 
 “Church trials around the chargeable offenses that relate to the LGTB community are not helpful. They use time, resources, and energy that could be better used for the ministry of the church. I will continue to try in every way, as far as it depends on me, to not have church trials.” 
 
 On her blog Johnson wrote essentially the same thing, but added this final clause: “but as a bishop of the church, I must uphold my vow to follow the due process mandated by our Book of Discipline.” 
 
 In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Johnson’s office said she regretted the changes and wanted to stick with the first version: 
 
 “Bishop Johnson has reconsidered the changes and wishes to withdraw the revised version, making the original statement — herewith attached — the official statement from her office.” 
 
 The second version was removed from her blog Tuesday. 
 
 Conference spokesman John Coleman said the bishop wouldn’t speak further about the wording changes but noted “this is the strongest statement I think she’s made.” 
 
 Schaefer Tuesday called Johnson “courageous.” 
 
 “The very Bishop under whose episcopacy I was found guilty of violating a law of the United Methodist Book of Discipline, now calls this same law discriminatory!” Schaefer said. “She is now stepping up to be the leader we asked her to be. I am so proud of her.” 
 
 Schaefer still seems likely to lose his credentials Thursday when he appears before the region’s Board of Ordained Ministry. If the pastor tells the board he won’t abide by the jury’s penalty — which he said Monday he won’t — “he will automatically be withdrawn from ministerial office,” Coleman said. 
 
 Coleman said he believed Schaefer can appeal the jury’s penalty to a Supreme Court-like United Methodist body, but he wasn’t clear of the time frame for doing so. Schaefer has said in the past he might consider an appeal if that is allowed. 
 
 Johnson’s letter was a response to one from 44 clergy in the conference asking her “to take a stand.” The clergy asked her, among other things, to “acknowledge that some statements in the Book of Discipline are discriminatory and that we need to engage in a process of discernment, prayer and change.” ||||| Six years ago, the Rev. Frank Schaefer of Lebanon, Pa., officiated his gay son's same-sex wedding in a private ceremony in Massachusetts. He is now under trial by the United Methodist Church after one of his own flock filed a complaint. (The Washington Post) 
 
 Six years ago, the Rev. Frank Schaefer of Lebanon, Pa., officiated his gay son's same-sex wedding in a private ceremony in Massachusetts. He is now under trial by the United Methodist Church after one of his own flock filed a complaint. (The Washington Post) 
 
 After weeks of cross-examination, witness lists and wrangling over admissible evidence, the Rev. Frank Schaefer stood in the gymnasium of a rural Methodist retreat center to answer a charge: Did he violate his faith when he officiated at his son’s same-sex wedding? 
 
 By the end of the day Monday, the rare jury of 13 Methodist pastors had found Schaefer guilty on two charges: “conducting a ceremony that celebrates same-sex unions” and “disobedience to order and discipline of the Methodist Church.” 
 
 On Tuesday morning, the jury reconvened to devise Schaefer’s penalty for agreeing in 2006 to officiate at the marriage of his son, Tim, who earlier had contemplated suicide over his homosexuality. The penalty in past similar cases has ranged from a short suspension to defrocking. 
 
 First to testify was William Bailey, a longtime member of the Zion United Methodist Church, who said he and Schaefer over the years had “agreed to disagree” about literalism and scripture. 
 
 “I believe in the Bible, and the [Methodist Book of Discipline] is enforcing the Bible and the Ten Commandments,” said Bailey from a witness stand before some 150 rapt listeners — mostly advocates for gay rights. “Violating a rule makes me very, very stubborn. Because if I violate a rule, I expect to be punished, and I expect nothing else from our church.” 
 
 1 of 13 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Methodist pastor found guilty at church trial of officiating son’s gay wedding View Photos Divisions echo the struggles of the rest of mainline Protestantism over same-sex marriage. Caption Divisions echo the struggles of the rest of mainline Protestantism over same-sex marriage. Nov. 17, 2013 The Rev. Frank Schaefer of Zion United Methodist Church in Lebanon, Pa., officiated at his son’s same-sex wedding in 2007. Lori Waselchuk/For The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 Christina Watson, a newer member who was overseeing Christian education at the church, broke into tears as she described Schaefer telling her that the Methodist Book of Discipline “was just guidelines, that it didn’t have to be followed.” She said she took her family out of the church this fall. 
 
 In a nation where places of worship tend increasingly to line up on one side or the other on hot-button issues, something beyond Schaefer himself seemed to be on trial: the possibility of a spiritual middle ground. 
 
 Schaefer and other members of Zion United Methodist Church, in the small eastern Pennsylvania town of Lebanon, had largely tried to avoid the divisive topic of sexuality and focus on God. Now, the issue is unavoidable. 
 
 “I see you on both sides. I see your tears, and I hurt for every member of this church that is in pain. You have to remember — God is in control,” pastoral assistant Clydette Overturf preached Sunday to about 60 congregants, many with tears streaming down their cheeks. “We are a family. Families have struggles. We aren’t the first church to hurt, and we won’t be the last.” 
 
 Indeed, Schaefer is the first among five Methodist ministers to be accused by church officials over the past year of possibly violating church doctrine on gay rights. The other four could also face church trials. The cases, which are being closely watched by advocates on both sides, represent perhaps the biggest flare-up in recent years in mainline Protestantism over the issue of homosexuality. At 8.3 million members, Methodists are the second-largest group of Protestants in the United States. 
 
 A church trial is unusual, as is the sight of a pastor as a “defendant” of his ministry to his own son. The Schaefer family is also atypical in that three of the pastor’s four children are gay. 
 
 At the same time, parts of the story unfolding at Zion are very familiar in American religion: a church torn apart by personality clashes or power struggles about routine matters, including whether to keep the service traditional or make it more contemporary and who gets hired or fired. 
 
 Schaefer’s collision with half of his congregation was in some ways inevitable. 
 
 He grew up in a conservative evangelical home in Germany and believed as a younger adult that “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching,” he said in an interview, using the terminology of the Methodist Book of Discipline. After studying at a theologically diverse seminary, he became convinced that there were different ways to read scripture. But when he wound up being called to a rural, more traditional part of the country, he realized he had a choice to make. 
 
 “It’s a very conservative area. You have to make a choice as a minister: If I am going to be a shepherd to these people, I can never talk about it. Which I didn’t,” he said. 
 
 This was something of the unspoken rule in a congregation where people knew views were mixed. “I’m like Switzerland. We try to keep it neutral,” said Jackie Krezmien, who came to Zion about six years ago. 
 
 Schaefer didn’t talk about it at home, either. Tim Schaefer, the oldest of Schaefer’s three sons, says he remembers suspecting that his parents wouldn’t reject him, but he wasn’t sure. 
 
 Schaefer began at Zion in 2002 after serving another eastern Pennsylvania church. That was two years after a parent called the pastor anonymously to tell him Tim, then 16, was gay and considering suicide. Schaefer and his wife asked their son point-blank. 
 
 “What sticks in my mind, he was so upset not that I was gay, but that I had planned to wait to leave the house before saying anything,” said Tim Schaefer, who lives in Massachusetts and is no longer married. 
 
 “My wife and I lost it in tears. We hugged him. We told him we loved him so much,” the pastor said separately in a phone interview. “To me, this was definitely the proof — he did not choose this.” 
 
 But even as Schaefer thought he was being silent on the issue in church, some longtime conservative members noticed a change from previous pastors when he arrived 11 years ago. 
 
 He started a second, contemporary service and began focusing heavily on it in an attempt to grow the church. He wasn’t hesitant to change the structure of the service and music, and “there was a drift from scripture,” said Bonnie Leibold, the assistant choir director at Zion for 30 years before leaving over the dispute. 
 
 “His preaching was unorthodox. It’s hard to pinpoint anything. The church just felt like it was changing,” said Kitty Mease, 85, who left two years ago after a half-century at Zion. While Schaefer didn’t preach explicitly on homosexuality, she said, general comments about inclusion felt coercive in a traditional community. 
 
 “He was trying to change our views. Some of this we knew — though we didn’t know the extent that the entire family was [part of] this other lifestyle apparently,” Mease said. 
 
 And in 2006 came Tim’s request. He called his father to say he was engaged and asked his father to marry him. Both knew the moment was fraught in Methodism. 
 
 “I thought about the severity of what I had done,” the minister told the court Monday. But considering his son’s previous emotional struggles, Schaefer said that when Tim asked his father to affirm his marriage, “seeing my son needing ministry, asking me for help. . . . I couldn’t pass on the other side of the road like a Levite to preserve a rule. All I saw was love for my son.” 
 
 The Methodist Church, like the rest of mainline Protestantism, has been wrestling with issues surrounding gay rights for decades. It has added affirmations about the dignity of gays and lesbians and the importance of pastors to minister to them, but unlike some other mainline denominations, the Methodist Church has not expanded gay rights on things such as marriage and allowing clergy to be openly gay. 
 
 In reality, many bishops practice a don’t ask, don’t tell policy, and many Methodist churches are led by gay clergy. 
 
 There were at least four Methodist Church trials between 1998 and 2011 for clergy accused of performing same-sex weddings or of being openly gay, and all were convicted. One pastor was tried twice. 
 
 But five new potential cases have appeared in just the past year or so as more pastors have worked to move the issue out of the closet. Two other pastors, like Schaefer, married their children — including Thomas Ogletree, the esteemed retired dean of Yale University Divinity School. 
 
 On an early spring day in 2007, in front of about 150 people in a Massachusetts restaurant, Schaefer presided over his son’s wedding. He made no announcement of his role in the wedding to his congregation, though Leibold and others say rumors about his participation existed for years. 
 
 While Leibold, Mease and others say they don’t support gay marriage, they say it wasn’t a key issue as tensions continued to build. Some of them went to the superintendent, or regional leader, and the bishop with complaints about how decisions were made. 
 
 “They kept telling us, ‘You have to resolve this yourself,’ ” Leibold said. But the bishop said, “ ‘If you bring me something [like a rule violation], I can address that.’ ” 
 
 But Overturf says the new, more inclusive language was a big factor. “[Sexuality] was an issue. The rest is scapegoating,” she said. 
 
 Over the years, the tensions built. About half the church’s 250 members have left since spring because they disagreed with Schaefer officiating his son’s wedding or with Methodist officials for pursuing him or because they were tired of the acrimony. 
 
 The conflict hit its zenith this spring, when Schaefer removed the longtime choir director, a member of the more traditional group. Within days, her son secured the 2007 wedding certificate from Massachusetts and sent it to the bishop within a few weeks of the statute of limitations running out. 
 
 Under trial rules, her son’s name was kept private until Monday, when Jon Boger, a strapping Navy lieutenant commander, wept on the stand as he described his time away from his family — because he was keeping his oath to the service. Schaefer must also keep his oath, Boger said. 
 
 “You have a choice. If you violate it it’s your decision,” Boger said. 
 
 Boger said he has “no issue” with people who are gay — though he opposes same-sex marriage. 
 
 “I do think homosexuality is unnatural and immoral and sinful. But you still need to treat people with dignity and respect. It’s not an issue,” Boger said. 
 
 Schaefer believes that Methodism’s governing documents are contradictory. The Book of Discipline calls pastors to minister equally to all people, he said in an interview. Methodism’s constitution demands inclusiveness. 
 
 At its root, such conflicts are about whether scripture is fixed in the past or continues to be revealed, said Scott Campbell, a Harvard University chaplain and counsel to one past and one current pastor facing trial for officiating at a gay marriage. “Those of us who want to say God is continually making things new see this as one of the manifestations of this newness.” 
 
 Schaefer and other trial participants were prohibited by church rules from commenting on the verdict Monday. 
 
 On Sunday, the people of Zion were still trying to maintain that middle road, the one disappearing from much of American religion. Even as their pastor was not present, with his attorneys preparing for a church trial, the congregation members tried to stick with the routine. The bulletin led with an item urging people to decorate the sanctuary for Advent, and services started with an announcement about ordering poinsettias. 
 
 People who may disagree about gay marriage but want to stay together as a church belted out contemporary Christian rock, and when Overturf said, “God is good!” the congregation responded, “All the time!” The talk was not about sexuality, but about prayer. 
 
 “We pray, God, you use this opportunity to help people see that you are alive,” said a man leading a mid-service prayer. “Not everything goes the way we want. The answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no. But you’re always there.”
– The United Methodist Church dropped the hammer today on a Pennsylvania pastor who'd performed his son's same-sex wedding, defrocking him entirely. The church board decided Rev. Frank Schaefer's fate in a meeting that lasted just 15 minutes, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The church had convicted him last month, and on Monday told him that if he didn't renounce his same-sex-marrying ways and recommit to the Methodist Book of Discipline, he should resign. But Schaefer responded by saying that he could not "uphold those discriminatory laws" because they are "hurtful and harmful to our homosexual brothers and sisters in the church." He also refused to voluntarily resign, the AP reports. The case has set off debate within the church. One bishop, for example, posted a statement Monday saying that "several statements in the Book of Discipline are discriminatory," which has left many "wondering how we can talk out of two sides of our mouth," the Washington Post reports. Later, she posted a revised version saying that the statements "may seem discriminatory" but were "intended to be clear and fair."