Source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press via San Francisco Chronicle, Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, Louisville Courier-Journal
The top court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has cleared Rev. Jane Spahr, a California minister, of charges that she violated denominational law when she officiated at the weddings of two lesbian couples.
But the court also refused to recognize the ceremonies performed by the Spahr as weddings -- no matter what she called them -- on the grounds that the church constitution defines marriage as between one man and one woman, Louisville Courier-Journal reports.
"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," the court wrote.
At the same time, the ruling affirmed the right of same-sex couples to have unions of some kind in a ceremony that would theoretically have a distinct liturgy.
The ruling from the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly, the Presbyterian Church's highest decision making body, overturns a decision last year by a regional judicial committee that found the Spahr guilty of misconduct and gave her a rebuke -- the lightest possible punishment.
The ambivalent ruling -- affirming the rights of gays and lesbians to have their relationships sanctioned by the church but not considering them equal to those of heterosexual couples -- is likely to disappoint both sides in the debate.
Offering neither a complete rebuke nor rejoicing in same-sex relationships, the 11-page Presbyterian court ruling attempted to lay out a road map for what types of unions it would uphold or reject. And much of the issue seems to revolve around how clergy spoke about such same-sex rites, San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The Courier-Journal reports that the Louisville-based church court said that the ruling did not set a precedent for punishing a minister who performed such ceremonies.
The judicial commission noted that Spahr, 65, a lesbian activist and retired Presbyterian minister from San Rafael, has long had a ministry to gays and lesbians and that the church has to strike a balance between the need to reach out to those with same-sex orientations while also adhering to such rules as its ban on ordaining non-celibate gays and lesbians.
The court said it would be wrong to impose "censure on a minister of the Word and Sacrament for reaching out to a marginalized and oppressed segment of the body."
Some viewed the ruling as revealing the contradictory sentiments within the struggle over how to view committed relationships among same-sex couples.
"It really demonstrates the tensions at large in society as a whole and in the church itself," said Sara Taylor, an attorney representing the Rev. Jane Spahr.
The role of same-sex unions may be the single most divisive issue in Christianity today, sometimes with global repercussions. Methodists, Lutherans and Episcopalians in the United States have found themselves in bitter fights over the issue.
Four attempts to specifically prohibit same-sex unions by the Presbyterian General Assembly, the larger church's legislative gathering, have failed.
But given the existing definition, the court ruled that clergy responsibilities are clear.
Clergy "who are authorized to perform marriages shall not state, imply or represent that a same-sex ceremony is a marriage. ... A same-sex ceremony is not and cannot be a marriage."
Spahr said she had conducted hundreds of same-sex unions since 1974. She said that in recent years gays and lesbians have wanted marriages specifically because they saw the term as a measure of equality, the Chronicle reports.
Over the past five years, Spahr said she'd presided over at least 14 such ceremonies.
She called the court's ruling, which removed a censure against her, a mixed ruling.
"To hear once again that they are not equal, but we are separate and unequal, gives me great pause," she said.
Spahr said she counsels and treats gay and lesbian couples the same as she does heterosexual couples. Despite the court's injunction against marriage, Spahr said she would continue to do her ministry. She is currently counseling six couples who hope to get married in the next year. Three of them are same-sex couples.
[updated 4/30 with additional reporting from San Francisco Chronicle]
Full article: Presbyterian church court rules on gay unions | San Francisco Chronicle
Presbyterian Church clears minister in gay marriage case | AP
Spahr decision due today | Press-Democrat
Church court clears minister in same-sex ceremonies | Louisville Courier-Journal