IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A campus minister at the University of Iowa is facing church discipline for performing a same-sex wedding.
The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that the Rev. Anna Blaedel is executive director at the Wesley Student Center. She told the newspaper she knew she was jeopardizing her United Methodist Church standing when she officiated at the ceremony April 4 for a fellow clergywoman and her wife. But Blaedel says she also knew “that saying ‘no’ to one of my best friends would cost me my integrity and my soul.”
The center’s board of directors is supporting her.
The Appointive Cabinet of the Iowa Conference has filed a complaint against Blaedel, charging her with practices considered “to be incompatible with Christian teaching.” The complaint is being decided by Bishop Laurier Haller of Des Moines.
