“Violated the GAPJC’s 2008 ruling…..which said that PCUSA ministers cannot call a same-sex ceremony a “marriage,” based on the Book of Order’s definition”

The Rev. Jane Spahr is again facing charges in the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Presbytery of the Redwoods for officiating a same-sex wedding.

According to a news release, the retired Presbyterian minister and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) rights advocate faces charges that she violated her ordination vows. The charge is based on Spahr officiating the marriage of Sara Taylor and Sherrie Holmes in June 2008, one of “many legal” same-sex weddings Spahr performed in California before voters passed Proposition 8, which restricted the state’s definition of marriage to opposite-sex couples only.

Taylor, an attorney who defended Spahr in the 2008 General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC) trial, said the charges claim Spahr:

Violated the GAPJC’s 2008 ruling on Spahr v. PCUSA through the Presbytery of Redwoods, which said that PCUSA ministers cannot call a same-sex ceremony a “marriage,” based on the Book of Order’s definition;

Persisted in a pattern or practice of disobedience;

Failed to be governed by the PCUSA’s policy regarding her ordination vows by violating the 2008 GAPJC ruling on same-sex marriages; and

Failed to uphold the peace, unity and purity of the church.

The 2008 Spahr case before the GAPJC, which the new charges are based upon, focused on section W.9000 in the Book of Order. It defines Christian marriage as a civil contract between a man and a woman that’s a covenant before God.