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California commission acquits minister
who performed same-gender weddings
By Susan Childress
Special to The Layman Online
Monday, March 6, 2006
Chart of trial participants in Adobe Acrobat
format
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SANTA ROSA, Calif. – In a controversial two-day trial that drew a crowd of
150 spectators and media from major television networks and local stations
and newspapers, a PCUSA tribunal vindicated a Northern California minister
on charges that she violated church law when she married two same-sex
couples.
A seven-member California Redwoods Presbytery Permanent Judicial
Commission found that the Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr, an ordained
Presbyterian minister, evangelist and lesbian activist, committed "no
offense" and acted "within her right of conscience" when she pronounced
each lesbian couple "bride and bride and partners in life" in 2004 and
2005.
The three-woman, four-man tribunal deliberated five hours March 3 to
determine whether Spahr acted contrary to the denomination's Book of Order
that defines a marriage as a gift of God and a covenant between a woman
and a man. Spahr challenged the church constitution that allows the
blessing of same-sex unions yet forbids homosexual weddings.
"Today is just a beautiful day for us," said Spahr immediately after the
Commission's 6-1 ruling at Church of the Roses in Santa Rosa, chosen
because of its location within the Redwood Presbytery and for the lack of
its association with either the defense or prosecution.
"Today there was an honoring of who we are, and we can't tell you what
this means to us," Spahr said. Proclaiming that she will continue to marry
both lesbian and gay couples, Spahr added, "I know we'll continue to do
our work with love, with integrity and with justice."
In finalizing their decision, applicable only to the California North
Coast's Presbytery of the Redwoods, six of the commissioners signed a
declaration affirming "that the fundamental message of the Scriptures and
Confessions is the proclamation of the Good News of God's love for all
people. It is a message of inclusiveness, reconciliation, and the breaking
down of barriers that separate humans from each other and this
proclamation has primacy in the conduct of the Church."
They concluded that the church's constitution does not "prohibit the
performance" of same-sex marriages "by ministers of the Word and
Sacrament," and that "the subject of same-sex marriage has not been shown
to be outside of, or contrary to, the essentials of the Reformed faith as
understood by Presbytery of the Redwoods."
In addition, they said, "Conscience is subordinate to constitutional
mandates and to essentials of the Reformed faith, but conscience takes
precedence over propriety."
Sara Taylor, one of Spahr's two San Francisco attorneys, conceded that
although the ruling is a local decision, "we hope this is a signal of
great things to come."
"It's the correct thing under Presbyterian law and God's law," added her
other attorney Timothy Cahn, a Presbyterian Church elder. "It's about
respect and conscience," he said. "Can this church really turn to this
person and demand that she treats the community she serves differently?"
he asked.
The Presbytery of the Redwoods has the right to appeal the decision, and
church officials were mute on their plans.
During the trial, Spahr admitted to marrying the two lesbian couples,
Bonnie Jean (BJ) Douglass and Connie Valois in 2004 in Rochester, N.Y.,
and Annie Senechal and Sherrill Figuera in 2005 near Guerneville, Calif.,
a community in the coastal redwoods where the percentage of people,
reporting to the 2000 U.S. census that they lived in same-sex
partnerships, far exceeds the national average.
"I take seriously their relationships, and I believe God takes seriously
their relationships, and it is a sacred trust," Spahr said during the
first day of testimony. "When you say that a relationship is 'less than,'
then you are promoting violence," she said.
Both couples, who are registered domestic partners in their home states
that do not recognize same-sex marriages, took the stand in defense of
Spahr.
Douglass, 41, a Rochester resident raised in San Rafael, Calif., said she
met Spahr 27 years ago when she attended a Presbyterian youth group where
Spahr served. "Being a lesbian in a Presbyterian church has been really
hateful because you're not seen as being okay," she said. Douglass
resolved the issue by staying in the denomination and believing that "the
church would just have to catch up."
Senechal said she and Figuera approached Spahr after living together for
almost a dozen years. "Being married," she said, "is not something we'd
taken lightly. Marriage was a natural step for us to do. The idea of
having a covenant with one another was an absolute must for us."
Figuera testified that she daily spends time in the Word with God. "God is
an important part of my life. Being married … it is deeper, stronger … and
God is at the center of it." She said she felt "honored and accepted" when
Spahr pronounced them bride and bride.
Minutes after the commissioners announced their verdict, Figuera said
through her tears, "I'm very honored and very humbled to be here and be a
part of this incredible day. I thank God first they (the tribunal) opened
their hearts," a plea that Spahr's attorney, Cahn, urged the tribunal to
incorporate in making its decision.
Although the church forbids active lesbian and gay members to serve as
ministers, it allowed Spahr, 63, to keep her ordination after she came out
as a lesbian in 1978, four years after she was ordained. The General
Assembly prohibited her from leading a church in 1992; however, she has
since served as a "lesbian evangelist" for Downtown Presbyterian in
Rochester, N.Y., and Westminster Presbyterian in Tiburon, Calif. She also
is director of That All May Freely Serve, an organization that lobbies for
the ordination of practicing homosexuals and sanction marriage ceremonies
for same-gender couples.
Although she admits to blessing unions and eventually marrying homosexual
couples since 1974, the actual charge against Spahr stemmed from an email
sent in 2004 to the Presbytery of the Redwoods by the Rev. James Berkeley,
who opposed the ordination of homosexuals. He claimed that Spahr had
married a gay couple in Canada.
That charge prompted Joan Runyeon, presbytery clerk at the time, to launch
an investigating committee that later amended the charges to address two
other same-sex ceremonies, church officials said. While Runyeon testified
that Spahr never asked for the presbytery's guidance or talked about her
involvement in counseling same-sex partners for holy unions and weddings,
she did make mention of them in her timely institutional minister's
reports. Part of Runyeon's job involved summarizing those reports and
passing on "significant information to the Committee on Ministry (COM)."
Under oath, Robert Conover, current clerk and former chair of the
Committee on Ministry, stated that Spahr also submitted what he termed
"annual reports." He said he did not recollect the mention of same-gender
marriages present in those. Annual reports in general, he said, are read
more thoroughly than institutional reports.
Conover also testified that church officials in the presbytery knew that
Spahr was performing same-sex ceremonies and a few had even attended them,
but it wasn't until the "question surfaced about the ability to prosecute"
and brought to the COM's attention in 2005 that officials reviewed the
minister's reports.
San Francisco attorney Stephen Taber, who prosecuted the case on behalf of
the investigating committee, argued that Spahr understood that the issue
of same-sex marriage is controversial, and that "she did not avail herself
to the presbytery or Book or Order which states a marriage is between a
man and a woman."
"She (Spahr) has the right to fight for change but not with disregard of
church policy – freedom with boundaries," Taber said. "We do this through
community … not as individual cowboys."
Taber also dismissed the notion that the PCUSA was infringing on Spahr's
freedom on conscience. "The Presbytery is not prosecuting Rev. Spahr for
her beliefs or for heresy."
"Of course I take very seriously the laws of the church," Spahr said
shortly after the tribunal began deliberations. "I take the Scripture
seriously. And, of course, I always listen to Christ." Words and action go
together, she said. "Words can be cheap if these two don't go together,
and I must always act from my deepest part – which is Christ."
"Ordination vows start with Christ," said Taylor, Spahr's attorney, "that
gives way to Scripture, that gives way to constitution. Janie works in
validated special ministries," she said, "and Janie has not done this in a
vacuum. Presbytery officials have attended these ceremonies, and she has
been forthcoming in her reports. Janie has not departed from the
essentials of the Presbyterian church."
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