SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — A retired Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister challenged her denomination’s position on same-sex marriage today by officiating the wedding of two women who wanted to be among the first couples to legally marry in California.
The Rev. Jane Spahr, recently acquitted by a church council of officiating same-sex ceremonies before California made gay marriage legal, presided over the wedding between Sara Taylor, 54, and Sherrie Holmes, 57, at the Marin County Civic Center.
“I pronounced them married under the authority granted me by the state and as a minister of the Presbyterian Church,” Spahr said after the service, attended by Holmes’ 30-year-old daughter and longtime friends of the couple, who have been together 18 years this week.
The brides and their pastor said they hoped the wedding would send a message to church leaders gathering in San Jose for a weeklong legislative meeting where changes to the denomination’s positions on marriage and the ordination of gay clergy are scheduled to be discussed.
“I’m so disappointed the church doesn’t lead on this,” Taylor said.
The constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) defines marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman. The denomination’s top court ruled in 2000 that ministers can bless same-sex unions as long as the ceremonies are not called a marriage and don’t mimic traditional weddings.
Spahr, a lesbian who used to lead a ministry for gay Presbyterians, has challenged the church’s position on same-sex marriage before. Two years ago, the San Rafael minister was charged with misconduct for performing marriage ceremonies for two lesbian couples in 2004 and 2005.
The church’s Supreme Judicial Council overruled a regional church court and acquitted her in late April, concluding that Spahr did not violate denominational law because the ceremonies she performed were not real marriages.
Now that gay and lesbian couples can get married in California, a similarly technical ruling won’t be possible, said Spahr, who is scheduled to officiate more same-sex weddings this summer.
Taylor, a lawyer who represented Spahr on the misconduct charges, said she decided to get married at the government building that houses the county courthouse instead of at a local Presbyterian church to honor the California Supreme Court for its decision last month to strike down the state’s gay marriage ban. The first same-sex marriages in the state took place Monday afternoon.
“We want to recognize the court’s wisdom and complete understanding of why these relationships have to be recognized: Our constitution requires it,” she said.
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