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ByMaryclaireDale TheAssociatedPress PHILADELPHIA A Penn- sylvania pastor who broke church law by presiding over his son's same-sex wedding ceremony and then became an outspoken activist for gay rights can return to the pulpit after a United Methodist Church appeals panel on Tuesday overturned a decision to defrock him. The nine-person panel ordered the church to re- store Frank Schaefer's pas- toral credentials, saying the jury that convicted him last year erred when fash- ioning his punishment. "I've devoted my life to this church, to serving this church, and to be restored and to be able to call my- self a reverend again and to speak with this voice means so much to me," an exultant Schaefer told The Associated Press, adding he intends to work for gay rights "with an even stronger voice from within the United Meth- odist Church." The church suspended Schaefer, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, for offici- ating his son's 2007 wed- ding, then defrocked him when he refused to prom- ise to uphold the Methodist law book "in its entirety," including its ban on clergy performing same-sex mar- riages. Schaefer appealed, argu- ing the decision was wrong because it was based on an assumption he would break church law in the future. The appeals panel, which met in Linthicum, Mary- land, last week to hear the case, upheld a 30-day sus- pension that Schaefer has already served and said he should get back pay dating to when the suspension ended in December. Bishop Peggy Johnson of the church's eastern Penn- sylvania conference said Tuesday she will abide by the panel's decision and re- turn him to active service. The ruling can be ap- pealed to the Method- ist church's highest court. The pastor who prosecuted Schaefer, the Rev. Christo- pher Fisher, said he has not made a decision about an appeal. "I'm still in prayerful consideration about that," said Fisher, calling Tues- day's decision "not entirely unexpected." At a news conference in Philadelphia, Schaefer said he expects to take a job with the Methodist church in California, a liberal bas- tion where there is presum- ably little chance he would be punished for defying church doctrine on homo- sexuality. The issue of gay mar- riage has long roiled the United Methodist Church, the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination. Hundreds of Methodist ministers have publicly re- jected church policies that allow gay members but ban "self-avowed practicing ho- mosexuals" from becoming clergy and forbid ministers from performing same-sex marriages. Traditionalists say clergy have no right to break church law just be- cause they disagree with it. Some conservative pastors are calling for a breakup of the denomination, which has 12 million members worldwide, saying the split over gay marriage is irrec- oncilable. Schaefer said Tuesday's decision "signals a major change within the United Methodist Church, for sure." The appeals panel, how- ever, suggested it was not making a broader state- ment about the church's position on homosexual- ity but based its decision solely on the facts of Schae- fer's case. The jury's punishment was illegal under church law, the appeals panel concluded, writing in its decision that "revoking his credentials cannot be squared with the well-es- tablished principle that our clergy can only be punished for what they have been convicted of doing in the past, not for what they may or may not do in the future." The decision also noted that Schaefer's son had asked him to perform the wedding; that the cere- mony was small and pri- vate, held not in a Meth- odist church but in a Mas- sachusetts restaurant; and that Schaefer did not pub- licize the wedding until a member of his congrega- tion learned of it and filed the complaint in April 2013. "The committee notes that, in another case in- volving different facts, a majority of its mem- bers might well have concluded that a differ- ent penalty better serves the cause of achieving a just resolution," the panel said, adding that some of its members wanted a longer suspension for Schaefer. Schaefer, 52, said he ex- pects the decision to stand. "The church is chang- ing," he said, "and that is good news for everybody." RELIGION MATTROURKE—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS United Methodist pastor Frank Schaefer does a dance step a er a reporter's question as the Rev. Lorelei Toombs, le , looks on during a news conference Tuesday at First United Methodist Church of Germantown in Philadelphia. Pastor defrocked over ga y we dd in g is r ei ns ta te d "I've devoted my life to this church, to serving this church, and to be restored and to be able to call myself a reverend again and to speak with this voice means so much to me." — Frank Schaefer Paid Advertisement WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 5 B