Following his conviction, Rev. Schaefer was suspended from ministerial duties for 30 days. During those 30 days, he was to "take time to prayerfully discern new calling to LGBT persons" and he was to meet with the Board of Ordained Ministry. He was told that he would be permanently stripped of his ministerial orders if after 30 days he decided that he could not follow the Methodist Book of Discipline 100%.
Rev. Frank Schaefer was formally defrocked by United Methodist Church officials on Thursday, December 19, 2013, because he officiated at the wedding of his eldest son:
In an interview afterward, Mr. Schaefer said that as he got into the car to go home, his wife noticed he was shaking. “For 20 years, I’ve served this church, and it has now put me outside,” he said. “I find myself totally shunned, excluded. It just felt awful.”It sounds like Rev. Schaefer is gonna have to learn because I don't see the UMC changing its decision anytime soon, despite his appeal of the decision.
He said he would not consider leaving the Methodist Church for a denomination that has changed its teaching on homosexuality.“It’s not that easy when a church is your spiritual home,” he said. “All my children have been baptized in the United Methodist Church. I don’t know how to be a minister out of the United Methodist Church.”