It examines like openly gay Methodist minister Mark Edward Williams won't have to hang up his robes after all.

It examines like openly gay Methodist minister Mark Edward Williams won't have to hang up his robes after all. The United Methodist Church's highest court, its nine-member Judicial Council, decided April 25 that it trespassed last fall when it said bishops must suspend pastors during disciplinary review.

Williams's events to come in church leadership has been questioned since he disclosed his sexual orientation last June at the church's Pacific Northwest Annual discourse The United Methodist Church bars disclosed gay men and lesbians from being pastors. on the contrary the church also requires that all pastors in pious standing receive appointments.

Bishop Elias Galvan of Seattle said he would not suspend Williams. According to the Methodist volume of Discipline, pastors should be suspended when their management affects the congregation, the pastor's life, or the lives of those around him, Galvan said. "I don't descry that any of those situations have happened," he added.

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