Same-sex marriages prompt trial for Spahr
Marketta Gregory
Staff writer
March 2, 2006 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
A minister with ties to Rochester's Downtown United Presbyterian Church
faces a religious trial today for officiating at same-sex marriages.
"I'm charged with raising the status from 'holy union' to 'marriage,'"
said the Rev. Jane Adams Spahr, who now lives in California. "I acted, of
course, out of my deep faith and conscience."
A Rochester couple — Connie Valois and Barbara Jean Douglass — traveled to
California to testify at today's trial. Spahr officiated at their Aug. 21,
2004, wedding in Rochester, and at that of a same-sex couple from
California. They will also be at the trial.
"Hopefully (the testimony) will open people's hearts and minds in a way to
see us as people with dreams and hopes," Spahr said.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) constitution defines marriage as "a civil
contract between a man and a woman," so when a minister in Washington
state learned of Spahr's participation in the ceremonies, he notified the
Presbytery of the Redwoods in California.
The California presbytery will conduct the trial through a seven-member
Permanent Judicial Commission, which hears evidence much as a jury would
in a civil case.
Douglass and Valois see their testimony as a way to help move the civil
rights movement forward.
"We're hoping that the civil rights movement is going to get to a point
where changes start to happen," Douglass said after she and Valois arrived
in California. "If we don't make history, at least we'll be making some
waves. But we hope we make history."
Today and Friday are set aside to hear testimony, said Robert Conover,
stated clerk at the Presbytery of the Redwoods.
"I think we all hope that it can be done in one day," he said, but when
the judicial commission will issue its judgment is anyone's guess.
Trials aren't common at the presbytery but this one has touched off
emotional tension, Conover said. The presbytery has spent close to $30,000
on legal fees and the very topic of same-sex marriages brings up strong
opinions.
"This is one detail in the whole debate — a debate that's not just in the
church but in larger society," he said.
There are four degrees of possible censure: rebuke; rebuke with supervised
rehabilitation; temporary exclusion from ordination; and removal. There is
a process for appeals.
Timothy Cahn, an attorney representing Spahr, knows of five or six
individuals who have faced similar accusations.
"No one yet has been convicted," he said. "Janie may be the first."
Spahr, a lesbian, was chosen to serve as a pastor at Downtown Presbyterian
more than 10 years ago. A national Presbyterian commission ruled against
allowing her to serve. She runs a ministry called That All May Freely
Serve, which is affiliated with Downtown Presbyterian and Westminster
Presbyterian Church in Tiburon, Calif.
MGREGORY@DemocratandChronicle.com
Copyright 2005 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. |
