A Methodist pastor was just reinstated as a clergyman after he was defrocked for officiating his son's gay wedding.

After a set of appeals to a panel, Frank Schaefer is now allowed to come back and be minister to a congregation. According to The Christian Science Monitor, he will be transferred to a liberal Methodist church on July 1 which is known as Isla Vista Student Ministry, located in California.

"I've devoted my life to this church, to serving this church, and to be restored and to be able to call myself a reverend again and to speak with this voice means so much to me...with an even stronger voice from within the United Methodist Church," he said to The Associated Press, "[This] signals a major change within the United Methodist Church, for sure."

Schaefer will receive back pay for his suspension until December 2013.

In his time off from pastoring, Schaefer became a gay rights activist.

According to Christian Science Monitor, the suspension and defrocking came after it was revealed to the church that the minister officiated his gay son's wedding. He had a chance to "redeem" himself, but would not promise he would not do it again. His defense was that the church is punishing him for something that hasn't happened yet.

The panel came to the decision was not legal as far as Methodist law, "...revoking his credentials cannot be squared with the well-established principle that our clergy can only be punished for what they have been convicted of doing in the past, not for what they may or may not do in the future," one of the appeals read according to CSMonitor.

The wedding was found out about due to a member of the congregation filing a complaint in 2013, over five years later.