March 10, 2014
Methodists End Minister's NY Same-Sex Wedding Case
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 1 MIN.
The United Methodist Church has dropped its case against a retired minister accused of breaking church law by officiating his son's same-sex marriage.
The Rev. Thomas Ogletree says he's grateful his church will no longer prosecute him for presiding over his son's 2012 wedding. He says the New York ceremony was "an act of pastoral faithfulness and fatherly love."
At Monday's announcement, Bishop Martin McLee called on the church to stop prosecuting other pastors for ministering to gay people.
The decision is considered a victory for Methodists who have defied church law and organized ministry to all couples. But conservative Methodists have been pressing church leaders to discipline clergy who preside at gay weddings.
Ogletree is the 80-year-old ex-dean of the Yale Divinity School.
