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Presbyterian Church Clears Minister In Gay
Marriage Case
by The Associated Press
Posted: April 29, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET
(Tiburon, California) The
highest court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has found
that a Northern California minister did not violate
denominational law when she officiated at the weddings of two
lesbian couples.
The ruling announced Tuesday by
the Louisville, Ky.-based court overturns a decision against
the Rev. Jane Spahr last year. A regional judicial committee
had found Spahr guilty of misconduct and gave her a rebuke —
the lightest possible punishment.
The church's high court found
that the ceremonies Spahr performed were not marriages, so she
did not violate the church's constitution.
The panel reiterated the
church's position that Presbyterian ministers can bless
same-sex unions as long as the ceremonies don't too closely
mimic traditional weddings.
Spahr, 65, of San Rafael,
retired last year. She was the first minister of her faith to
be tried for officiating the weddings of gay couples, and one
of several Presbyterian ministers facing disciplinary action
for similar offenses.
Acting on a complaint brought
by a minister in Washington state, the Presbytery of the
Redwoods, which oversees 52 churches along the Pacific coast,
brought the charges against Spahr in 2005 for marrying the
couples from New York and California.
In 2006, a Northern California
church court that found Spahr had acted within her rights as a
minister when she interpreted the church doctrine to permit
her presiding over the weddings. The presbytery appealed the
ruling to the church's regional judicial commission.
Many Protestant denominations
are divided over how they should interpret what the Bible says
about homosexuality. In the Presbyterian Church, several
theologically conservative congregations have announced plans
to break away from the denomination.
"The person I saw yesterday was not the
person that I met 20 years ago," Obama said of the man who officiated at
his marriage.
©365Gay.com 2008
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