The Rev. Frank Schaefer, right, and his son Tim Schaefer walk to a meeting of the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tenn.

A United Methodist pastor who was temporarily defrocked after officiating at his gay son’s wedding will be able to stay in the ministry, the denomination’s highest court ruled Monday.

The decision by the Judicial Council — meeting in Memphis, Tenn. — did not put to rest how the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination will deal with the issue of gay marriage. Based on a technical issue, it steered clear of expressing support for same-sex unions.

The Rev. Frank Schaefer, who has been leading a Santa Barbara, Calif., congregation since summer, was jubilant after the council’s pronouncement.

“Justice was done,” he said. “This really signals the entire Methodist church is interested in keeping the dialogue going, rather than just outright banning a minister who speaks up for LGBT rights. This is definitely a step farther down the road.”

Schaefer was stripped of his ordination in December after he refused to tell a church jury he would not preside over more same-sex marriages. Methodist law forbids clergy from blessing such unions.

In June, a Methodist appeals court restored Schaefer’s ministerial rights, ruling he was being unfairly punished for a hypothetical — an action that had yet to occur. Shortly afterward, Schaefer moved from his longtime home in Pennsylvania to Southern California, taking over a struggling Methodist church near the University of California, Santa Barbara campus.

But the pastor’s ordeal wasn’t over. The church appealed the June decision, and the case was turned over to the Judicial Council, which heard arguments last week.

Monday, the council affirmed Schaefer’s reinstatement, agreeing that while he had refused to promise to uphold church law “in its entirety,” he was being punished for something that had yet to happen.

Schaefer, who has three gay children, officiated at the wedding of his eldest son in 2007. The ceremony was held in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage was legal, but the pastor kept it a secret from his largely conservative congregation.

Six years later, one of his congregants found out about Schaefer’s role at the ceremony and filed an official complaint.

Held in a small church camp near Philadelphia, the December proceeding received national attention — partly because United Methodists, like other mainline Christians, have been grappling with the issues of same-sex marriage and gay rights.