(RNS) A mid-level court of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has overturned a lower court ruling and ruled that a lesbian minister should be rebuked for conducting a same-sex wedding ceremony.
The 6-2 decision against the Rev. Janie Spahr was made on Saturday (Aug. 18), but Spahr and others involved in the case learned of it on Aug. 23.
Spahr, a self-proclaimed ‘lesbian evangelist,’ was originally charged in presiding at the 2005 wedding of two women near Guerneville, Calif. The denomination allows pastors to preside at same-sex blessing ceremonies as long as they are not treated as marriage rites.
The lower court, based in Napa, Calif., had cleared Spahr in March 2006 of wrongdoing, saying she was acting ‘within her right of conscience.’ The higher court, however, disagreed. ‘Regardless of the expression of conscience by the Rev. Dr. Spahr, she may not circumvent the standards of the church,’ ruled the Permanent
Judicial Commission of the church’s Synod of the Pacific. ‘Although the Rev. Dr. Spahr had acted with conscience and conviction, her actions were contrary to the Constitution as it is authoritatively interpreted.’
The higher court directed the lower court to ‘enter a finding of guilt … and to impose the censure of rebuke.’
The two dissenting members of the higher court said in a minority report that ‘the issue of freedom of conscience importantly distinguishes her actions from willful disobedience, and does not require censure.’
Spahr, 65, expressed disappointment in the ruling.
‘I am deeply saddened that our church has chosen not to recognize the loving relationships of members of its own family,’ she said in a statement.
The ruling can be appealed to the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the highest court in the denomination, within 45 days. ‘We will listen and pray, and see where the Spirit leads us,’ Spahr said.
