NAPA, Calif. — A Presbyterian court Aug. 27 found a retired California pastor guilty of violating church rules and her ordination vows by performing same-sex “marriages” while it was briefly legal in the state in 2008.
Pastor Jane Spahr, 68, never denied presiding at as many as 16 ceremonies, even though her denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), prohibits ministers from stating, implying or representing same-sex unions as marriages.
The Napa, Calif.-based Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbytery of the Redwoods found Spahr guilty by a 4–2 vote, concluding she persisted in a “pattern or practice of disobedience.”
Sphar’s penalty is a formal rebuke, pending her possible appeal.
The court unanimously found Spahr not guilty on the charge of disturbing the “peace, unity and purity of the church.” Spahr is the second PCUSA minister this summer to be convicted of performing gay “marriage.” A midlevel church court in Massachusetts convicted Pastor Jean Southard, a retired minister, in June. (TAB)
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