US Presbyterian Minister Guilty of 'Marrying' Lesbian Couples

A judicial commission of the largest Presbyterian denomination in the US has found a minister guilty of violating Church law for performing same-sex ceremonies for two lesbian couples, officials said last Friday.

|PIC1|The commission ruled against the Rev Jane Adams Spahr of San Rafael, California, a lesbian activist and longtime pastor of the Presbyterian Church in the US, saying her actions were at odds with the Church's constitution.

"Regardless of the expression of conscience by the Rev Dr Spahr, she may not circumvent the standards of the Church," the Synod of the Pacific Permanent Judicial Commission ruled in an appeal decision.

The Presbyterian Church's rules and precedent cases make clear that ministers are not to conduct same-sex "marriage" ceremonies, according to the ruling. The denomination's Book of Order defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

The decision overturns a lower Church body's ruling last year that acquitted her of charges that she violated the Church rules and that she acted within her right of "conscience".

Two members of the eight-person judicial commission dissented on some aspects of the latest ruling, according to Reuters.

"I believe the issue of freedom of conscience importantly distinguishes her actions from willful disobedience, and does not require censure," Linda Lee and Susan Barnes wrote.

Spahr, who claims to have presided over hundreds of same-sex unions over the past three years, faced the Church's judicial scrutiny for officiating the weddings of two lesbian couples in May and August 2004.

"There are marriages done out of great love," Spahr told Reuters. "Where else would we want love to be celebrated but in the church?"

The higher Church body said it would impose "the censure of rebuke". Although the rebuke does not affect the ordination of Spahr, her attorney Sara Taylor said the ruling would serve as a warning to other ministers and same-sex couples that their "marriages" are not to be recognised in the Church.

Spahr, who retires at the end of this month, was the first openly gay or lesbian minister hired in 1991 to be a pastor of a congregation in the Presbyterian Church in the US. She was blocked from serving as pastor a year later and was the first Presbyterian minister tried for officiating the weddings of gay couples.

Spahr said she would appeal the decision to the Church's highest judicial body, the General Assembly.