An ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church USA…was acquitted Monday on a 3-3 vote 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 a Minneapolis area church in the 1990s, is likely to be appealed. It is the first time the PCUSA…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 2 1/2-hour trial before a presbytery panel of six…in Bloomington. 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…

The Rev. Neil Craigan, a White Bear Lake pastor who was on the prosecuting committee, said his group will consider an appeal. The case could rise to the synod level and possibly to the national church for final disposition…

At issue was whether Barron violated the church constitution, which says that church officers must “live either in fidelity with the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers.”

Barron has publicly defended gay marriage, writing about the issue in church publications and other places. He has been previously investigated by the church for unchaste and immoral behavior, charges that were dismissed by the church investigating committee. The investigation leading to Monday’s trial was spurred by a complaint from an elder at a Minnetonka church. Both sides declined to name the accuser, whom Barron said he has never met.

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