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Presbyterian Church Not Yet Ready to Embrace Marriage Equality

Sunday, September 4th, 2011

Presbyterian ChurchThe Presbyterian Church began ordaining LGBT ministers in July, and that will take some getting used to before performing same-sex marriages could be considered, according to a top church official.

“That’s a different battle,” said Cynthia Bolbach, moderator of the Presbyterian Church, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

“I don’t think that just because this last vote came out in favor of ordaining gays and lesbians, that the church is ready as a whole to move and talk about same-sex marriage.

Full Story from The Advocate

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MN: Presbyterian Minister Acquitted by Church After Marrying Gay Partner

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

Minnesota Gay MarriageAn ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church USA was acquitted Monday by a church panel of charges that he violated the church constitution when he legally married his gay partner in California in 2008.

The case of the Rev. Erwin Barron, who was associate pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis in the 1990s, is likely to be appealed. It is the first time the divided church, which sidestepped the issue of gay marriage at its national convention last summer in Minneapolis, has dealt with the possible discipline of a gay pastor who legally married a same-sex partner.

Barron, a college professor in San Francisco whose church credentials remain with the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area, faced a 21/2-hour trial before a presbytery panel of six at Oak Grove Presbyterian Church in Bloomington, Minn. After almost three hours of closed deliberations, the panel split 3-3. A two-thirds vote was required for conviction, which lawyers said could have led to defrockment.

Full Story from the Kansas City Star

Click here for gay marriage resources in Minneapolis.

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CA: Presbyterian Minister to Appeal Gay Marriage Decision

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

A retired lesbian minister who officiated at a number of same-sex weddings during the period in which they were legal in California, says she will appeal against the ruling of a Presbyterian court last Thursday which rebuked her for going against the constitution of her denomination.

The court ruled that Reverend Jane Adams Spahr’s actions sent contradictory messages about the church’s support of gay rights. The court, part of the Redwoods Presbytery district of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Napa, California, did however, acquit Rev Spahr on a charge of failing “to further the peace, unity and purity of the church”"

Rev Spahr was also praised by the court for “her prophetic ministry that for 35 years has extended support to ‘people who seek the dignity, freedom and respect that they have been denied’”.

Full Story from Pink News

Click here for gay marriage resources.

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Verdict: Reverend Broke Rules, But Showed Compassion With Gay Weddings

Friday, August 27th, 2010

A Presbyterian Church tribunal ruled on Friday that lesbian Rev. Jane Adams Spahr violated the church’s constitution when she married gay and lesbian couples, while at the same time praising her compassion.

Rev. Spahr officiated at 16 gay and lesbian weddings during the brief period in which they were legal in California. She was brought up on church charges after an anonymous complaint.

The church tribunal ruled that she had violated her ordination vows by performing the ceremony.

Full Story from Chicago Pride

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CA: Presbyterian Reverend to Be Tried By Church for Marrying Gays

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

A retired Presbyterian reverend goes on trial Tuesday in Napa for marrying 16 same-sex couples in 2008 when the marriages were legally recognized in California.

The Prosecuting Committee of the Presbytery of the Redwoods claims Rev. Jane Adams Spahr’s marriages between June 17 and Nov. 3, 2008 constitute a disciplinary offense in violation of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church of the United States Book of Order.

Citing the June 20, 2008 marriage of two women, the complaint states that “officers of the Presbyterian Church USA authorized to perform marriages shall not state, imply, or represent that a same sex ceremony is a marriage. Under W-4.9001, a same sex ceremony is not and cannot be a marriage.”

Full Story from KTVU

Click here for gay marriage resources.

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Presbyterian Church OK’s Gay Clergy, But Says No to Gay Marriage

Friday, July 9th, 2010

Delegates of the Presbyterian Church (USA) on Thursday agreed to allow the ordination of non-celibate gay clergy, but rejected gay marriage. Meeting in Minneapolis for their biennial convention, delegates followed the recommendation of its Church Orders and Ministry Committee and voted in favor of allowing gay clergy.

The church currently requires that officers either be in a monogamous heterosexual marriage or remain celibate. The new language, which removes any mention of sexuality, was approved in a 373 to 323 vote.

The change will need to be ratified by a majority of the church’s 173 U.S. presbyteries before coming into force. A similar measure approved two years ago by delegates died in the hands of the district churches.

Full Story from On Top Magazine

Click here for gay marriage resources.

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Religion and Gay Issues – Where the Churches Stand

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

Lutherans might be at the leading edge of issues surrounding religion and homosexuality, but other religious groups have staked out their positions as well:

Episcopal Church: Episcopalians allow gay ordinations, although bishops are not required to perform them. The church last year ended a moratorium on ordination of gays as bishops, choosing a lesbian in March in Los Angeles.

The church’s triennial general convention last year called for development of same-gender blessings. Meanwhile, the convention said, bishops may give “generous pastoral response” to couples in states that permit gay unions.

Full Story from the Sun Sentinel

Click here for gay marriage resources.

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CA: Retired Presbyterian Minister Prosecuted by Church Again for Gay Weddings

Monday, March 29th, 2010

The Rev. Jane Spahr, a retired Presbyterian minister, faces prosecution by her own church – for the second time in four years – for officiating in the marriages of same-sex couples. “Here we are again,” said Spahr, 67, who was acquitted by the church’s highest tribunal in 2008, capping a two-year disciplinary case that started with a trial in Santa Rosa in 2006.

Spahr, who lives with her son and 6-year-old granddaughter in San Francisco, freely acknowledges the church’s allegations that she married a lesbian couple in June, 2008, and 15 other same-sex couples that year.

“This is what we are called to do,” Spahr said, asserting, as she did before, that she conducted the marriages as a “matter of conscience.”

Full Story from the Press Democrat

Click here for gay marriage resources in California.

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