Spahr cleared in gay unions

<p>The Rev. Jane Spahr was cleared Tuesday of charges that she violated Presbyterian Church law by marrying two lesbian couples, but her right to continue the ceremonies remains in doubt, lawyers and church officials said.</p><p>Holding that Spahr was charged with "doing that which by definition cannot be done," the church's highest court reversed a guilty verdict and rebuke ordered last year by a lower court.</p><p>Tuesday's ruling by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly based in Louisville, Ky. ended a two-year disciplinary case against Spahr. But it left open the potential jeopardy to her and any other ministers who perform future same-sex marriages, according to church officials and lawyers on both sides.</p><p>The court found Spahr not guilty, but also held that Presbyterian ministers may not "state, imply or represent that a same-sex ceremony is a marriage," affirming the church's constitutional definition of marriage as a contract between a man and a woman.</p><p>Spahr, 65, a lesbian activist and retired Presbyterian minister, said her satisfaction with the ruling was muted by its implication that gay and lesbian marriages are "separate but unequal," she said.</p><p>Appearing at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tiburon with her attorney and advocates, Spahr said she would risk future prosecution by continuing to marry same-sex couples.</p><p>"It really doesn't matter to me what they might do," she said, wearing a black tunic, white collar and multicolored scarf. "I must do what I was called to do."</p><p>Spahr's defense attorney, Sara Taylor, said she was disappointed by the ruling. While it was "one small step for the church," Taylor said the ruling improperly attempted to legislate the issue of gay marriage, which has divided the 2.3 million-member Presbyterian Church for more than 30 years.</p><p>Stephen Taber, the San Francisco attorney who prosecuted Spahr, said the commission's verdict hinged on "a semantic reading" of the charges against Spahr.</p><p>The ruling said, in essence, that "you can't charge somebody with an act that doesn't exist," Taber said.</p><p>"The decision strains common sense," said the Rev. James Berkley, the Seattle-area minister whose complaint prompted Spahr's prosecution, started in 2006.</p><p>Berkley, calling himself "the guy who called 9-1-1," said Spahr's acquittal was based on a "technicality."</p><p>"I suppose it's a technicality," Taber conceded.</p><p>Taber said he personally supports same-sex marriage by Presbyterian ministers and would support a move to amend the church's constitution to permit it.</p><p>Such a move might be initiated at the Presbyterian Church's General Assembly, the denomination's legislative body, which convenes June 21-28 in San Jose, Taber said.</p><p>Issues like the church's position on homosexuality won't be resolved by judicial cases like Spahr's discipline, Taber said, but should come through "a dialogue within our church."</p><p>"I invite the church to understand and expand its view of marriage to incorporate all," said Spahr. "I believe that God has said yes and the church has said no in its judicial court."</p><p>Spahr was accused of violating church law by marrying two lesbian couples, one of them in a ceremony on the Sonoma Coast in 2005. Neither couple was married under civil law.</p><p>Spahr said Tuesday she is currently counseling six couples in preparation for marriage -- three heterosexual and three same-sex pairs.</p><p>Taber, Taylor and Berkley agreed that Spahr could be prosecuted for any future same-gender marriages.</p><p>"The technicalities won't allow her to escape sanction again," Berkley said.</p><p>The opposing attorneys declined to predict what might happen, although Taylor said any new charges would have to be filed by the Santa Rosa-based Presbytery of the Redwoods, which represents 54 congregations from Marin County to the Oregon border.</p><p>"I would expect that this presbytery would continue to stand by her," Taylor said.</p><p>Acting on Berkley's complaint, the Redwoods Presbytery initiated the case against Spahr, and its own judicial panel ruled 6-1 in her favor in 2006.</p><p>The local presbytery appealed, and last August a synod judicial commission convicted Spahr of violating church law on a 6-2 decision.</p><p>The Rev. Robert Conover, presbytery leader, said that Tuesday's ruling by the highest court was "very Presbyterian" in that it upheld the church constitution and "recognized the pastoral care that Jane has given" to gays and lesbians.</p><p>If a new complaint against Spahr or anyone else was filed, Conover said the presbytery would once again form an investigating committee, but he couldn't predict the outcome.</p><p>"We would have to see how it proceeds from there," he said.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.</p>