Jane Adams Spahr, an ordained Presbyterian pastor, was found not guilty of misconduct 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. “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 had pleaded not guilty, although she acknowledged that she’d married Annie Senechal to Sherrill Figuera on May 27, 2005, outside Guerneville, Calif., 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, N.Y. They are affiliated with a Presbyterian church in Rochester, but are inactive.
Spahr, a grandmother who lives in San Rafael, Calif., 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).
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.
As the first witness called before the seven-member commission, she 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.”
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.
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.”
The case against Spahr, a member of Redwoods Presbytery for more than 25 years, alleged that she violated her ordination vows and the PC(USA) Constitution by performing the same-sex marriages.
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 (U.S.A.),” 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.”
Taber said in his closing argument 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.
In a minority opinion, PJC member Janet Moor, an elder from Benicia, Calif., 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.
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.
The March 3 ruling was a departure from that provision.
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.”
Spahr is one of at least two Presbyterian ministers in recent years to face charges for marrying same-sex couples. The other, Stephen Van Kuiken, a former pastor of Mount Auburn Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, 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.
Joan Runyeon, a former interim stated clerk of Redwoods Presbytery. said the Spahr investigation started with an inquiry from James Berkley, a member of Seattle Presbytery.
