When Phil Wenger wanted to marry his partner, he asked his father, 96-year-old Chester Wenger, a longtime pastor and missionary in the Mennonite Church, to officiate.

The backyard ceremony at the home of Wenger and his now-husband, Steve Dinnocenti, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was attended by only a few people in June. But since that day, it has rippled far beyond the town.

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In September, the retired pastor’s ministerial credential was revoked by the church based on these guidelines: “Pastors holding credentials in a conference of Mennonite Church USA may not perform a same-sex covenant.”

L. Keith Weaver, moderator for the Lancaster Mennonite Conference, said the decision stemmed from a review “that was experienced as mutually gracious and respectful,” according to an email he sent to Lancaster Online.

Now, Chester Wenger, who is not fighting the decision, hopes the episode might prompt the church to reconsider its acceptance of gays and lesbians, as he wrote in an online piece published by The Mennonite, a publication of Mennonite Church USA.

“I know persons will accuse me for my transgression,” he writes, “but my act of love was done on behalf of the church I love, and my conscience is clear.”

Had he foreseen the repercussions, Phil Wenger told Lancaster Online, he never would have asked his father to officiate. But he also said his father’s letter was meant to address any further church divide.

The elder Wenger, a former pastor at Blossom Hill Mennonite Church in Manheim Township, Pennsylvania, said his thinking evolved after Phil Wenger was kicked out of the church in the late 1970s for his sexual orientation.

“When our gay, young adult son about 35 years ago was excommunicated from the Mennonite Church by a church leader, without any conversation with him or his parents, my wife and I grieved deeply,” he wrote.

“For many years, in the company of other grieving parents of homosexual persons, we have told our stories, read and reread the Scriptures,” he added. “What would Jesus do with our sons and daughters who are bullied, homeless, sexually abused, and driven to suicide at far higher rates than our heterosexual children?”

The father of eight (one deceased) continued, “We believe this is an opportune moment for the church to boldly proclaim a pastoral, grace-filled readiness to include both homosexuals and heterosexuals within the blessing of a marriage covenant designed to be wholesome and God-honoring.”

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