Note #9179 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06143 March 3, 2006
Spahr not guilty of misconduct in performing same-sex marriages
She was exercising her 'right of conscience' when she married lesbian couples, PJC rules
by Evan Silverstein
SANTA ROSA, CA - The Rev. Jane Adams Spahr was found not guilty of misconduct Friday (March 3) after a trial on charges that she violated the denomination's position on same-sex marriage by performing weddings for two lesbian couples.
The Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) of Redwoods Presbytery said in a written ruling that the marriage of same-sex couples is not "outside of, or contrary to, the essentials of the Reformed faith as understood" by the presbytery.
Spahr, 63, a longtime lesbian activist in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), had faced sanctions ranging from a reprimand to removal from ministry. She was exultant after the verdict.
Her attorneys and the two couples she married gathered around her, clapping and cheering, when the decision was announced.
"Today the church recognized that God's love is for all, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people," Spahr said afterward. "This historic ruling means that as a minister I can exercise my conscience to marry two people who have demonstrated their commitment to love, honor and cherish one another."
The presbytery's judicial commission ruled 6-1 that Spahr was acting within her "right of conscience" in 2004 and 2005 when she performed same-sex unions for the couples.
The PJC added, in its majority opinion: "We also find that the accused acted within the normative standards of Redwoods Presbytery, faithfully reporting to it her activities at reasonable intervals."
Spahr, a grandmother who lives in San Rafael, CA, said she will continue performing same-sex weddings and called the ruling a "step forward" in the faith community's long struggle over the full acceptance and inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons (LGBT).
"I just feel today there was an honoring of who we are, and for that I can't even begin to tell you what that means to us," she said with tears in her eyes, thanking the presbytery and its tribunal for allowing her to minister to LGBT people. "I'm grateful to the church. The church today, where I was raised, where my family said that God loved everyone, and I believed it. Today, for just a moment, to have this is just remarkable. So, I thank God."
The case against Spahr, a member of Redwoods Presbytery for more than a quarter-century, alleged that she violated her ordination vows and the PC(USA) Constitution by performing the same-sex marriages.
The Book of Order (section W-4.9001) states that marriage is and can only be a covenant between a man and a woman.
The highest Presbyterian court, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly, ruled in 2000 that ministers may bless same-sex "unions," but cannot confuse or equate them with marriage.
Friday's ruling was a departure from that provision.
"We are thrilled that the presbytery has followed God in realizing that our marriage deserved the recognition (accorded to) all marriages," said Annie Senechal, a witness in the case.
Spahr had pleaded not guilty, although she acknowledged that she'd married Senechal to Sherrill Figuera on May 27, 2005, outside Guerneville, CA, near San Francisco. Neither woman is Presbyterian.
She also acknowledged marrying the other couple, Barbara Jean Douglass and Connie Valois, on Aug. 21, 2004, in Rochester, NY. They are affiliated with a Presbyterian church in Rochester, but are inactive.
"I'm very proud of the church for being the first to open the doors" to LGBT members, Valois said.
Sara Taylor, one of Spahr's attorneys, said the ruling is binding within Redwoods Presbytery, meaning that all ordained clergy associated with the presbytery's 52 member churches are free to preside at same-sex weddings if they choose.
"Today's ruling is further evidence that Rev. Spahr's motivation for performing these marriages is consistent with the highest standards of Christian ministry," Taylor said. "More than anything, we want to thank the Permanent Judicial Commission for allowing us to have this public conversation about marriage equality in the church."
The Rev. Robert Conover, the presbytery's temporary stated clerk, said Friday that it was too early to guess whether the presbytery's ministers and elders will vote to appeal the commission's ruling.
In a minority opinion, PJC member Janet Moor, an elder from Benicia, CA, said that a minister who has pledged in her ordination vows to be governed by the church's polity and discipline should not be allowed to perform same-sex marriages.
"I agree with the prosecution that the beliefs of the accused are to be respected, but (believe) that the actions of the accused must still be constrained by what is prohibited by the Constitution," Moor wrote.
Friday's verdict came after a day-and-a-half trial and six hours of deliberation at the Church of the Roses in Santa Rosa, about 65 miles north of San Francisco.
More than 120 people, including many who obviously were supporters of Spahr, packed the church auditorium during the trial.
Spahr, as the first witness called before the seven-member commission, was far from repentant for presiding over the nuptials of the lesbian couples. She said she was following her conscience, a call from God and the wishes of the "brides" when she officiated at their weddings.
She challenged church rules that allow the blessing of same-sex unions but forbid gay members from marrying.
She said she as a matter of faith that the law prohibiting her from treating same-gender marriages as equal to heterosexual marriages is unjust and makes the church complicit in perpetuating violence against people and couples considered "less than" or treated as "second-class."
"I can't begin to tell you what it is to say to them that they were married by the church, by the authority of someone representing the church of Jesus Christ," Spahr said. "What it means for lesbian and gay people who are told for so long that they're no good, that our relationships are no good. That has a profound affect on them."
Spahr said she also believes that the PC(USA)'s rules limiting marriage to heterosexuals goes against the church's witness of "love and hospitality," and that the denial of marriage prevents LGBT members from fully participating in the church.
She said she helps every couple who meets with her to facilitate their marriage as a "sacred trust." She said she counsels each couple for a year before performing services. She also noted that, for many years, the LGBT community has usually referred to such services "Holy Unions" or "Celebrations." Now, she said, the preferred term is "marriage."
"I don't care what your sexual orientation is, what's most important to me is what you call it," she said. "They said 'marriage,' and I was honored to do their 'marriage,' so they would not be seen as second-class in any way."
The commission appeared to accept that rationale, writing that the Bible proclaims "a message of inclusiveness, reconciliation, and the breaking down of barriers that separate humans from each other, and that this proclamation has primacy in the conduct of the Church."
In opening statements, Stephen L. Taber, a San Francisco attorney prosecuting Spahr for Redwoods Presbytery, argued that the case was not about gay rights, but about church discipline.
"The burden on this commission is not to decide whether same-sex marriage is or is not appropriate for the Presbyterian Church (USA)," he said. "The only question here is whether Rev. Spahr committed certain acts, and whether those acts are in violation of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church."
Taylor countered that it was not up to the church to judge Spahr's actions, but was the responsibility of a higher power.
"The reformers were clear in their assertions that the authority of the church to discipline belongs not to the church but to Christ," she said. "Christ is the Word of God to the church and to the world."
Spahr, who acknowledged that she has performed many same-sex marriages in her 32 years as a Presbyterian minister, said all the unions were included in annual reports submitted to Redwoods Presbytery.
"Being a lesbian clergywoman, you learn not to hide anything," she said, adding that she has never been questioned about the marriages by any presbytery official.
Conover testified that local church officials were aware of Spahr's actions, and that some had attended her marriage ceremonies.
Joining Spahr and Conover as witnesses at the trial included the two couples she married and Joan Runyeon, a former interim stated clerk of Redwoods Presbytery.
Runyeon said the investigation started with an inquiry from the Rev. James Berkley, a member of Seattle Presbytery.
Valois and Douglass described their marriage as the most beautiful moment in their lives. "We already know we're married in the eyes of God," Douglass said.
Senechal testified about how it meant to her and Figuera to find an understanding minister in Spahr. "If you have never been in a place where you are not accepted, you won't understand," she said.
Taber said in his closing argument Friday that he believes Spahr's ordination vows required her to uphold the church's position that marriage is only between a man and a woman.
"She can be here in this community and hold her conscience, but the church has its rights to its own governance," he said.
Although the PC(USA) does not allow actively gay or lesbian members to serve as ministers, Spahr, who was ordained in 1974 in Pittsburgh Presbytery, was allowed to keep her position after she came out as a lesbian in 1978.
She was called in 1991 as co-pastor of Downtown United Presbyterian Church in Rochester, but that call was invalidated by the General Assembly PJC in November 1992.
Even without a call, the Rochester church in 1993 invited her to serve as a "lesbian evangelist" and established the group That All May Freely Serve to support her ministry, in partnership with Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tiburon, CA.
Since then, Spahr has traveled the country mustering support for the ordination of gay and lesbian Presbyterians and building a network of regional groups to help in the effort.
"It has been my honor to be in a community that is not understood many times by the church," Spahr said. "I would not be doing the work God has called me to do if I weren't doing these services, regardless of whether it meets the church's position or not."
Spahr is one of at least two Presbyterian ministers in recent years to face charges for marrying same-sex couples.
The other, the Rev. Stephen Van Kuiken, a former pastor of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, OH, lost his job and membership in the church when the Presbytery of Cincinnati overwhelmingly voted to remove him on June 16, 2003.
Van Kuiken appealed the decision to the PJC of the Synod of the Covenant, which ruled that the presbytery erred in removing him while he was appealing a previous presbytery decision. However, he never applied for reinstatement.
Spahr was originally charged after co-officiating at a February 2004 wedding in Ontario, Canada, of two men from New York state.
A trial was scheduled for April 2005, but was delayed because of extensive legal negotiations.
Then Redwoods Presbytery, based in Napa, CA, dropped the original charge concerning the gay men and amended the complaint to charge Spahr with marrying the lesbian couples.
Taber said the presbytery's prosecuting committee asked that the facts of the case be amended because, while Spahr co-officiated at the men's wedding, it was not clear whether she had actually pronounced them married.
Spahr did not sign the marriage certificate. She is not licensed to perform weddings in Ontario.
?We believed, based on the facts as we discovered them, that it could not be shown beyond a reasonable doubt that she had actually performed a wedding in violation of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA)," Taber said.
An investigating committee filed the charge with the presbytery after Spahr's participation in the Canadian same-sex wedding was brought to the presbytery's attention last March in an email sent by Berkley, who at the time was the issues ministry director of Presbyterians for Renewal, a conservative renewal group that opposes the ordination of gays and lesbians.
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