Spahr awaits Presbyterian Church ruling

<p>The Rev. Jane Spahr awaits a ruling due Monday from the Presbyterian Church's highest court on whether she violated church law by marrying two lesbian couples.</p><p>Spahr, 65, a lesbian activist and retired Presbyterian minister from San Rafael, declined to predict an outcome following a two-hour hearing Friday at Presbyterian Church headquarters in Louisville, Ky.</p><p>"It's been wonderfully inspiring," Spahr said in a telephone interview. "So we wait, but we're with wonderful family and friends."</p><p>Spahr's entourage, which held a silent witness in front of the Presbyterian Center before the hearing, included her three attorneys, family members and at least three of the same-sex couples she has married.</p><p>"We're definitely hopeful," said Sara Taylor, one of the attorneys. "It's a very thoughtful commission."</p><p>Spahr, who was ordained as a minister in 1974, has made no secret of marrying gay and lesbian couples, asserting that it was a matter of principle and conscience.</p><p>A Santa Rosa church tribunal endorsed her stand, ruling 6-1 in Spahr's favor in 2006. The Presbytery of the Redwoods, a regional body of the church that reaches from Marin County to the Oregon border, appealed the decision to the synod level.</p><p>Spahr was found guilty on a 6-2 ruling by a synod judicial board last August and received a rebuke, the lightest disciplinary penalty. Her appeal put the case before the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly, the church's equivalent of a supreme court.</p><p>Thirteen commissioners will deliberate over the weekend and are expected to issue a verdict Monday, said Laurie Griffith, a church official. Commissioners are not allowed to publicly discuss a case under review, she said.</p><p>The 2.3 million-member Presbyterian Church has been sharply divided over homosexuality, including the question of gay marriage, for more than 30 years.</p><p>Spahr's critics maintain that she is flouting Presbyterian law, which defines marriage as "a civil contract between a woman and a man."</p><p>Taylor said she argued Friday that since there is no "strict prohibition" against performing same-gender marriages, no offense can be established.</p><p>Spahr's case was the first time a disciplinary matter has been appealed to the synod and the General Assembly levels of the Presbyterian judiciary.</p><p>"This is very new legal ground for the church," she said, noting that it reverses a "long-standing assumption" of both civil and ecclesiastic law that an initial acquittal cannot be appealed by the prosecution.</p><p>Stephen Taber, a San Francisco attorney prosecuting Spahr on behalf of the Redwoods Presbytery, cited a 2000 decision by the General Assembly Judicial Commission that held Presbyterian ministers could conduct services blessing same-sex relationships but could not present them as marriages.</p><p>"As a community, no one in this church is above the law, above the constitution of this church," Taber told the commission, according to the Presbyterian News Service. "That's the way we have organized ourselves."</p><p>Taber said the case was difficult because "we are dealing with an individual who is highly respected in the church."</p><p>Sherrill Figuera of Guerne-ville said she was heartened by the "open-minded" demeanor of the commissioners. "I hope, pray and believe that the spirit will move their hearts, and they will realize that now is the time for change," she said.</p><p>Spahr presided at Figuera's marriage to her longtime partner, Annie Senechal, on the Sonoma Coast in 2005, one of the two ceremonies cited in the charges against Spahr.</p><p>Jeff Owens and David Hanson, a gay couple from Santa Rosa, were married by Spahr last year and also accompanied her to Louisville. Partners for 15 years, they declined a civil union, Owens said, because it was "less than a marriage."</p><p>A favorable church ruling for Spahr will make a "huge difference" in the campaign to permit same-sex civil marriages, Owens said. "I believe it's going to happen in my lifetime."</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.</p>