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He never announced a retirement but quit fighting and began preaching, on street corners at first, then, after ordination, in his own Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Houston.

Feminism, gay rights and the Vietnam War fueled additional discord, with more traditionalist congregants opposing the ordination of female priests and reacting furiously to mainline Protestant leaders who advocated from the pulpit.

“Because I am not nor cannot be in pastoral ministry at this time in my life, I do not think reinstating my ordination is appropriate.”

Across the decades, there were many cases of ecclesiastical civil disobedience — clergy doing ordinations and marriages that defied church bans, some of whom were tried for heresy or other infractions.

United Methodist Church law still bans the ordination of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” into ministry — a decades-old rule that will come up for a vote later this week.