Presbyterian minister found guilty of misconduct

<p>A Presbyterian minister from Marin County has been found guilty of violating church law for officiating the marriages of two lesbian couples, the minister’s defense team said Friday.</p><p>A regional judicial committee of the Presbyterian Church (USA) ruled 6-2 that while the Rev. Jane Spahr of San Rafael “acted with conscience and conviction,” her actions were still at odds with the church’s constitution, her defense team said in a statement.</p><p>Spahr, who is openly lesbian and has since retired, was the first minister of her faith to be tried for officiating the weddings of gay couples.</p><p>The ruling was delivered late Thursday by certified mail to lawyers for Spahr and the church.</p><p>It reverses the decision of a lower church court that acquitted Spahr after a two-day trial held in Santa Rosa in March 2006. The 6-1 ruling said that she acted within her rights as an ordained minister when she married two lesbian couples in 2004 and 2005.</p><p>That decision applied only to the Presbytery of the Redwoods, a regional body of the church that spans the North Coast from Marin County to the Oregon border.</p><p>It was appealed to the permanent judicial commission of the San Francisco-based Synod of the Pacific, which governs Presbyterian churches in Northern California, Nevada, Oregon and parts of Washington and Idaho.</p><p>The regional ruling could be appealed to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, which is the denomination’s ruling body.</p><p>The church’s policy is that same-sex union ceremonies are not prohibited as long as they are not officiated as marriage ceremonies.</p>