Former seminary student, founder of Spectrum, on trial for performing same-sex marriages

UPDATE: Rev. Jane Spahr was officially rebuked by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Redwoods Prebytery for performing 16 same-sex marriages during the five months in 2008 when it was legal in California.

The commission felt that Spahr violated her ordination vows, at the same time they commended her work with the LGBT community.

Though, they found her guilty on three of the four charges, they did not find her guilty on the charge that she failed to further peace, unity and purity within the church.

 The commission urged to church to re-examine "our own fear and ignorance that continues to reject the inclusiveness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." However, they felt their hands were tied in this trial.

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Much of the San Anselmo community waits anxiously today to hear the verdict of Rev. Jane Spahr, a former student at the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo and founder of the LGBT-rights organization Spectrum. Spahr is being charged by the Presbyterian Church with violating the church doctrine when she married 16 same-sex couples in California during a period when those marriages where legal here.

The trial – being conducted by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Redwoods Presbytery in Napa – is expected to conclude later today.

In a statement released yesterday, the Seminary said they are praying for all those involved in the ordeal.

"The San Francisco Theological Seminary is holding up in prayer Rev. Jane Adams Spahr and everyone associated with her church trial," said Holly Woodward, Communications Manager for the seminary, in the statement.

Spahr graduated from the seminary in 1970 and received her doctorate of ministry there in 1987. Two of the former lawyers assisting Spahr in her trial – Rev. Beverly Brewster and Scott Clark – are also former students of the Seminary, as are two members of the Judicial Commission – Rev. Dr. Arthur E. Crouch and Rev. Dan Christian.

Spahr has long been an advocate for the rights of gay and lesbian individuals. In 1982, she was one of the founding members of the Ministry of Light, which later became the Spectrum Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns in San Anselmo. [It recently moved to San Rafael.]

Though Spahr retired from her work as Executive Director of the organization in the early 1990s, current Spectrum Executive Director Paula Pilecki said they still consider her "a founding mother."

This is also not the first time Spahr has been on trial with the church. She previously was tried by the Presbyterian Church of the USA for performing same-sex commitment ceremonies and calling them weddings.

What makes this trial different than others of its kind is that Rev. Spahr was performing legal marriages in California at the time. If she is found guilty, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, it would be the first time the Presbyterian Church has disciplined a member for performing state-sanctioned marriages.

"We're very supportive of her efforts to bring the issue of inequality to light," said Pilecki. Spectrum will be hosting a forum on Proposition 8 – the California initiative that banned same-sex marriage and that was recently overturned by the state – in October. Spahr is expected to speak at that event.