MONTPELIER — A Virginia pastor who interfered with a custody dispute involving a lesbian couple in Vermont will remain jailed for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury.

Forty-seven-year-old Kenneth Miller was convicted last summer of helping Lisa Miller and her daughter leave the country in September 2009 to avoid sharing custody with her former partner. Prosecutors are trying to compel the pastor to testify against someone else involved in the flight, but Miller said his fundamentalist Christian faith prevents him from doing so.

Miller, of Stuarts Draft, Va., was jailed a week ago after refusing a judge’s order that he testify before a grand jury. At a hearing Thursday said he hasn’t changed his mind.

The Millers are not related.