Presbyterian court clears lesbian pastor on wedding charges

by Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service

The highest court of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has reversed a lower court's censure of a lesbian clergywoman who performed what critics called same-sex weddings for two lesbian couples in California.

"It is not improper for ministers of the Word and Sacrament to perform same-sex ceremonies," ruled the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in a decision released Monday (April 28). "At least four times, the larger church has rejected overtures that would prohibit blessing the unions of same-sex couples."

The decision about the Rev. Jane Spahr, who was charged in 2004 and initially cleared in 2006, hinged on language in the church's Book of Order, which defines marriage as "between a woman and a man."

The high court found that the lower court in the church's Synod of the Pacific (SPJC) was mistaken in its determination last year that Spahr had violated that language.

"By the definition in (the Book of Order), a same-sex ceremony can never be a marriage," the high court ruled. "The SPJC found Spahr guilty of doing that which by definition cannot be done. One cannot characterize same-sex ceremonies as marriages for the purpose of disciplining a minister of the Word and Sacrament and at the same time declare that such ceremonies are not marriages for legal or ecclesiastical purposes."

Same-sex ceremonies and marriages should remain different, the court declared.

"We do hold that the liturgy should be kept distinct for the two types of services," it said. "We further hold that officers of the PCUSA authorized to perform marriages shall not state, imply or represent that a same-sex ceremony is a marriage."

Spahr, 65, said she was "grateful" for the decision, which she considers an affirmation of her longtime ministry to gays and lesbians.

"The church is a place of welcome and hospitality in which I will continue to honor relationships of love and commitment, regardless of sexual orientation," she said in a statement.