SAN FRANCISCO – A
retired Presbyterian minister who officiated at 16 same-sex weddings
during the brief period they were legal in California has been censured
by her denomination's highest court.
The General Assembly Permanent Judicial
Commission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ruled in a 9-6 verdict
issued Tuesday that the Rev. Jane Spahr of San Francisco deliberately
violated church law when she conducted the marriage ceremonies in 2008.
Spahr, 69, who was ordained two years before
she came out as a lesbian during the 1970s and subsequently went on to
lead a national ministry that lobbied to have the church allow openly
gay clergy as pastors, admitted marrying the couples, but argued that
her actions were inspired by Presbyterian teachings on diversity and
inclusion.
The commission previously has ruled that
clergy may bless same-sex unions, but can only perform wedding
ceremonies for opposite-sex couples.
"The issue is not simply the same-sex
ceremony," the commission wrote in its majority opinion decision. "It is
the misrepresentation that the Presbyterian Church ... recognizes the
ceremony and the resulting relationship to be a marriage in the eyes of
the church."
The censure constitutes an official rebuke,
but does not carry additional penalties such as or exclusion from church
services or ex-communication.
The commission, made up of 15 ministers and
elders from around the country, held a hearing on Spahr's case in San
Antonio last week. The six members who voted against censuring Spahr
said punishing her sends the message that gay couples "are children of a
lesser God."
"This second-class ... treatment proclaims the hypocrisy of our present interpretations," the minority's dissent read.
The actions that led to Tuesday's verdict
were the second time Spahr had challenged the Presbyterian Church's
teachings on same-sex relationships. The Permanent Judicial Commission
acquitted her on charges of officiating at the weddings of two lesbian
couples in 2004 and 2005 after concluding Spahr did not violate the
church's constitution because the ceremonies she performed were not
legal marriages.
The church's 173 regional bodies amended the
Presbyterian constitution last year to allow the ordination of gay and
lesbian clergy in committed same-sex relationships. Church leaders are
expected to vote on this summer on whether to amend it further to allow
ministers to officiate at same-sex weddings
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