Gay Rites Case Charges Dropped
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WASHINGTON — Citing a procedural error, a tribunal of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) dismissed all charges yesterday against a Pittsburgh minister who was accused of violating the church’s rules by conducting a marriage ceremony for two women.
The Reverend Janet Edwards, 56, said she felt some disappointment that she would not have her day in church court.
“Scripture teaches me that the heart of marriage is the love and commitment between the partners. Life has taught me that gay and lesbian partners can show as much love and commitment as anyone else.”
Rev. Edwards, who has been married for 25 years and a Presbyterian minister for 29, presided over a June 2005 wedding ceremony for a Presbyterian, Nancy McConn, and a Buddhist, Brenda Cole. She could have faced penalties ranging from a rebuke to revocation of her ordination if she had been found guilty.
But just as her trial was to begin, the eight-member tribunal, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Pittsburgh Presbytery, ruled that an investigating committee had failed to bring the charges in time. The committee was appointed on September 8, 2005, and filed the accusations on September 12, 2006 — four days after the one-year deadline set by church law, the panel said.
Like many other Protestant denominations, the 3-million-member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been wrestling for decades over homosexuality. In 1978, its governing General Assembly declared that gay men and lesbians “must be treated with the profound respect and pastoral tenderness due all people of God.” In 1991, the same body ruled same-sex marriage ceremonies are “not sanctioned” and “not proper.”
Rev. Edwards said she interprets the 1991 ruling as “cautionary words” rather than an absolute ban on same-sex weddings. She acknowledged that many Presbyterians disagree. But she said both sides have tried to pass General Assembly resolutions clarifying the situation, and neither has succeeded.
While the case against Rev. Edwards is moot, charges are pending against the Reverend Jane Adams Spahr of San Rafael, Calif., who has conducted hundreds of same-sex ceremonies since 1974. Rev. Spahr was acquitted earlier this year by a church court in northern California, but the charges have been appealed to a regional tribunal.
