Michael Winter

USA TODAY

The Mormon church has excommunicated a prominent activist after she refused to stop advocating that women be ordained priests.

Kate Kelly, a co-founder of Ordain Women, was notified Monday by her former bishop in Virginia after a trial Sunday by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The all-male panel convicted her of apostasy -- repeatedly and publicly advocating policies contrary to church teachings.

In an e-mail to Kelly, which was shared with the church-affiliated Deseret News, Bishop Mark Harrison explained that she was being ousted not because "you have questions or even that you believe that women should receive the priesthood. The problem is that you have persisted in an aggressive effort to persuade other church members to your point of view and that your course of action has threatened to erode the faith of others."

He added, "You are entitled to your views, but you are not entitled to promote them and proselyte others to them while remaining in full fellowship in the church."

Harrison laid out a series of conditions Kelly must meet if she wants to be readmitted to the church in a year.

Kelly responded that the decision "to force me outside my congregation and community is exceptionally painful."

"Today is a tragic day for my family and me as we process the many ways this will impact us, both in this life and in the eternities," she said in a statement. "I love the gospel and the courage of its people. Don't leave. Stay, and make things better."

Ordain Women, which was launched in March 2013, posted Kelly's personal defense, a brief defending her against the charge of apostasy, and some of the 1,000 letters of support she received.

"Please keep in mind that if you choose to punish me today, you are not only punishing me," she wrote to the tribunal. "You are punishing hundreds of women and men who have questions about female ordination, and have publicly stated them. You are punishing thousands of Mormons who have questions and concerns with gender inequality in the church and want a place to voice those concerns in safety. You are punishing anyone with a question in their heart who wants to ask that question vocally, openly and publicly."

Before learning her punishment — the most severe — she said she would always be a Mormon.

"I don't feel like Mormonism is something that washes off," said Kelly, who grew up in Oregon and went to Spain as a missionary when she was 21. "That identity is not something that they can take from me."

Sunday, Kelly attended a vigil in Salt Lake City, where the church is based. Vigils were held in 17 other countries as well, Ordain Women said.

In May, a Virginia church official put Kelly on "informal probation," but she refused to take down the Ordain Women website and dissociate from the group, which says it "aspires to create a space for Mormons to articulate issues of gender inequality they may be hesitant to raise alone."

"As a group we intend to put ourselves in the public eye and call attention to the need for the ordination of Mormon women to the priesthood," the organization states.

A prominent, dissident Mormon advocating for gay men and lesbians is also facing excommunication. John Dehlin is scheduled to discuss his case with the church's regional president in Logan, Utah, on Sunday.