United Methodist Church Bishop announces no more trials for ministering to LGBT community

The announcement was predicated on a case between the United Methodist Church and Rev. Dr. Thomas Ogletree who officiated his son's same-sex marriage.

The trial has now been dropped and New York Bishop Martin McLee calls for no more prosecutions regarding ministering to the LGBT community.

Via press release:

At a joint press conference today, United Methodist Bishop Martin McLee and Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Ogletree announced that the church was dropping the case against Dr. Ogletree for officiating at his son’s wedding.

In a huge victory for the Methodist movement that is organizing ministry to all couples on an equal basis in open defiance of church law, the bishop dropped the case without any conditions.

Furthermore, Bishop McLee said in his statement “I call for and commit to cessation of trials,” the first time ever a sitting United Methodist bishop has categorically declared he will not prosecute pastors for ministering to LGBTQ people.

“I am grateful that Bishop McLee has withdrawn this case and the church is no longer prosecuting me for an act of pastoral faithfulness and fatherly love,” said Dr. Ogletree. “But I am even more grateful that he is vowing not to prosecute others who have been likewise faithful in ministry to LGBTQ people. May our bishop’s commitment to cease such prosecutions be the beginning of the end of the United Methodist Church’s misguided era of discriminating against LGBTQ people.”

The United Methodist Church is the second largest Protestant denomination in the US.

A United Methodist minister from Pennsylvania was defrocked after he officiated at his son's same-sex wedding.

(source)