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Minister who wed gays faces hearing
Case against Rev. Jane Spahr, which originated in Santa Rosa, goes before church tribunal Friday for third time
Published: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 3:33 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 3:33 a.m.
To the Rev. Jane Spahr, the right of a Presbyterian Church minister to marry same-sex couples is a matter of principle and conscience.
To her critics, Spahr, 65, a lesbian activist from San Rafael, simply broke the law that governs the Presbyterian Church, a 2.3 million-member mainstream Protestant denomination that celebrated its 300th anniversary in the United States in 2006.
The church's case against Spahr, which originated in Santa Rosa, is headed for its third and final hearing before a Presbyterian tribunal Friday in Louisville, Ky.
"This is an opportunity for the church to be open and welcoming and inviting," Spahr said. "Is this a church of only law or is it a church of grace? I want to bet it is."
The Rev. James Berkley, a Seattle-area Presbyterian minister, contends the law is paramount and Spahr "thumbed her nose" at it.
"It's as simple as if she had stolen church money," he said.
It was Berkley's e-mail in March 2004 that prompted the local Presbytery of the Redwoods to investigate and ultimately prosecute Spahr.
The 7,200-member presbytery, which represents 54 congregations from Marin County to the Oregon border, is by no means united on the matter.
"There are great differences of opinion," said the Rev. Robert Conover, a presbytery leader who holds the title of stated clerk.
Presbyterians across the nation have wrestled with homosexuality, including the issue of gay marriage, for more than 30 years, and rulings by the church's governing bodies have failed to resolve the controversy.
Berkley said homosexuality it is a "tragic topic" rooted in biblical interpretations that divide the denomination.
To Spahr, it is "a matter of equality."
A gray-haired grandmother who was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1974, Spahr never has denied the allegation against her: that she married two lesbian couples during one ceremony on the coast near Jenner in 2005, which included Sherrill Figuera and Annie Senechal of Guerneville. Since then she has continued to perform marriages for both straight and gay couples.
The four women were witnesses for Spahr at her trial in Santa Rosa and will be among the seven or eight couples -- gay, lesbian and heterosexual -- accompanying her to Louisville.
There, the church's highest court, the 16-member Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly, will determine whether Spahr faces any penalty for her acknowledged actions.
The court cannot change the Presbyterian constitution, which says: "Marriage is a civil contract between a woman and a man." But it can issue an interpretation, just as U.S. Supreme Court rulings interpret the Constitution, said Laurie Griffith, manager of the judicial process for the Office of the General Assembly.
The question of marrying same-sex couples is "clearly disputed," Griffith said, even after several interpretations by both the judicial commission and General Assembly, the church's legislative body.
In response to Berkley's e-mail, the Redwood presbytery's judicial commission, convened at Church of the Roses in Santa Rosa, ruled 6-1 that Spahr had acted "within her right of conscience" in performing same-sex marriages.
On an appeal from the Redwood presbytery, a Synod of the Pacific tribunal, a regional body, found last August that Spahr had violated church law. It issued a rebuke, the least serious of any potential penalty.
Spahr's appeal set the stage for Friday's hearing.
Spahr, a designated "lesbian evangelist" for the church from 1993 until her retirement from that post last year, said the case is about the well-being of gays and lesbians, as well as her own principles.
"When you say people are 'less than,' it perpetuates myths and stereotypes which give people license to hurt us," she said. "I want that to stop."
Berkley said he thought the local presbytery would tell Spahr to "cut it out" rather than launching a protracted legal process. He said Spahr's motives are clear -- "for Janie, it's a justice issue," he said -- but the case has diverted funds from church programs.
Conover said in 2006 that the Santa Rosa trial cost about $30,000 but declined to say last week how much the two subsequent appeals have cost.
The presbytery's attorney, Stephen Taber of San Francisco, has donated his services and only charged for expenses such as travel for the appeals, Conover said.
Spahr's case is technically an individual disciplinary action, Griffith said, but the Louisville commission's ruling could clarify the question of whether same-sex marriages are permissible under church law.
It's unlikely to defuse the controversy, she said.
"There will still be people who have (different) opinions about the theological context of marriage," Griffith said.
The commission's verdict is expected Monday.
You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.
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