Rev. Spahr awaits decision on church appeal

<p>The final decision on whether the Rev. Jane Spahr violated Presbyterian Church law by performing marriages for two lesbian couples will be announced Tuesday.</p><p>Spahr, 65, a lesbian activist and retired Presbyterian minister from San Rafael, had expected a verdict Monday but it did not come from Presbyterian Church headquarters in Louisville, Ky.</p><p>The Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly, the equivalent of the Presbyterian denomination’s supreme court, heard Spahr’s case on Friday and deliberated over the weekend.</p><p>Spahr, ordained as Presbyterian minister in 1974, has made no secret of marrying gay and lesbian couples, contending it is a matter of principle and conscience.</p><p>Church prosectors said she broke church law, contained in the Presbyterian Church constitution, which defines marriage as “a civil contract between a woman and a man.”</p><p>The 2.3-million member Presbyterian Church, a mainstream Protestant denomination, has been sharply divided over homosexuality, including the question of same-sex marriage, for more than 30 years.</p>