Ministers Back Colleagues at Pa. Same-Sex Ceremony
About 50 ministers are giving their symbolic support to a colleague facing sanctions from the United Methodist Church by participating in a same-sex wedding ceremony.
The wedding in Philadelphia on Saturday was held about a week before the Rev. Frank Schaefer of Lebanon faces a church trial for officiating over his son's marriage to another man.
The Philadelphia Inquirer says the clergy filled the front of a Methodist church in the city Saturday, blessing the marriage in defiance of church law.
A spokesman for the church's eastern Pennsylvania conference isn't commenting about whether any of the participants may face discipline. Most of the 50 are Methodist ministers.
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