PETALUMA, Calif. — A midlevel court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 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 Janie Spahr was made Aug. 18, but Spahr and others involved in the case learned of it 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.
The higher court directed the lower court to “enter a finding of guilt … and to impose the censure of rebuke.” (TAB)
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