Presbyterian church deciding case of pastor who performed gay marriages

[struggle4progress]

By Peter Smith
[email protected]
April 26, 2008

... The Rev. Jane Adams Spahr, a California minister and an advocate for gays and lesbians, is defending herself against charges that she violated the church constitution by conducting same-sex marriage ceremonies ...

No one disputes that Spahr performed marriage ceremonies for two lesbian couples, one in California in 2005 and the other in New York in 2004. Neither state allows civil marriages of same-sex couples, but Spahr said she considered the ceremonies to be "ecclesiastical" marriages ...

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/NEWS01/804260460


Presbyterian court to rule on pastor who married lesbian couples
By Jim Niemi
[email protected]

... In 2006, the Redwoods Presbytery court affirmed her ministry and ruled that same-sex marriages are not "outside of, or contrary to, the essentials of the Reformed faith as understood by the Presbytery of the Redwoods."

But that ruling was challenged by those who prosecuted Spahr, and was appealed to the next-highest church court, the Synod Permanent Judicial Commission. The synod court overturned the presbytery decision and ordered Redwoods Presbytery to censure Spahr, but recommended the minimum penalty, a rebuke.

Spahr then appealed to the denomination's highest court, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, which heard the case Friday at the Presbyterian Church USA Center in Louisville ...

http://www.kentucky.com/779/story/387136.html


Top church court reviews gay marriage case
By BRUCE SCHREINER
The Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky.

... During a two-hour hearing, an attorney for the Rev. Jane Spahr said the now-retired California minister committed no offense and followed her conscience when she married two lesbian couples in 2004 and 2005.

"This is a community of faith that knows well that all of its members are equal in God's eyes," attorney Sara Taylor said during the hearing at denominational headquarters in Louisville ...

Taylor told the church court there is no mention of same-gender ceremonies in the church constitution. She said Spahr presided over the weddings of the lesbian couples as a "right of conscience" and out of her efforts to minister to the "marginalized" ...

While the church constitution reserves marriage for a man and a woman, the top Presbyterian court ruled in 2000 ministers can bless same-sex unions as long as the ceremonies are not called a marriage and don't mimic traditional weddings.

http://www.pe.com/ap_news/California/KY_Presbyterians_Gays_338627C.shtml


Decision expected Monday for minister who performed same-sex marriages
By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Saturday, April 26, 2008

... Spahr, 65, a lesbian activist and retired Presbyterian minister from San Rafael, declined to predict an outcome following a two-hour hearing Friday at Presbyterian Church headquarters in Louisville, Ky. "It's been wonderfully inspiring," Spahr said in a telephone interview. "So we wait, but we're with wonderful family and friends" ...

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/EarlyEdition/article_view.cfm?recordID=9180&publishdate=04/26/2008

[ccharles000]

1. If they allow gay marrage...

I will have more respect for them.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. Wedding ceremony != marriage

Unless the ceremonies were done in Mass. (and they weren't), they were never marriages.