Schenectady, USA - When the Rev. Dr. Norman J. Kansfield, a Protestant theologian, officiated at his daughter's wedding last spring, he knew, at least in the corner of his mind, that there would be consequences because she is a lesbian.
Within days, members of his denomination from around the country began to circulate e-mail messages among themselves complaining about his action. Pastors also registered their objections to the parent church, the Reformed Church in America, of Grand Rapids, Mich.
In January, Dr. Kansfield's contract as president of New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey was not renewed. The trustees of the seminary, which trains ministers of many Christian denominations, also rebuked him for performing the marriage and warned him that other disciplinary action was likely.
Today, in Schenectady, N.Y., where the Reformed Church is holding its regularly scheduled annual meeting, called the General Synod, that other action begins.
Dr. Kansfield goes on trial.
If his church finds that he has violated church law, he could face a variety of punishments, including being defrocked as a theology professor and minister, and excommunicated.
The Synod rarely conducts such trials. Like other accused Protestant ministers, those of the Reformed Church are typically tried by their local churches. But theology professors, like Dr. Kansfield, must be tried by the church as a whole. This is the first such trial in more than a century, according to the Rev. Dr. Daniel Meeter, an expert on church law and pastor at the Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
It is one of several cases involving homosexuality to have roiled Protestant denominations recently.
In March 2004, in one of the more prominent cases, the United Methodist Church's supreme court acquitted the Rev. Karen Dammann of violating church law by openly declaring that she was in a lesbian relationship. The church's highest court later upheld that acquittal. However, her future remains unclear because the church reaffirmed the ban against gay ministers.
That May, a church court ruled that a Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Stephen Van Kuiken, did not violate church law by officiating at same-sex weddings, reversing a ruling by a lower church court. The court ruled that the denomination's constitution does not prohibit ministers from performing same-sex marriages.
The more than 270 delegates who have gathered at Union College for the Synod will act as jurors, debating Dr. Kansfield's fate and voting on it. A conviction, or acquittal, is by simple majority vote.
The Reformed Church in America is small, numbering about 284,000 adherents nationwide, with most of its followers in New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Iowa and California. One of the more conservative denominations in Protestant Christianity, the church has Dutch roots that date back to colonial times .
Dr. Kansfield, 65, is allowed to defend himself in today's session. His daughter, Ann, 29, the one he joined in marriage to another woman, Jennifer Aull, 31, has been subpoenaed to testify. Both Ms. Kansfield and Ms. Aull are studying to be ministers; they met at New Brunswick Theological Seminary, where Dr. Kansfield was president for 12 years.
Dr. Kansfield and his daughter declined to discuss the trial on the advice of their lawyers.
In February interviews, neither Dr. Kansfield nor his daughter regretted the ceremony. "We all very much agreed on it," he said then. "This was a very special moment. I would not have changed that for the world."
According to Dr. Kansfield's lawyer, William Rupp, the charges include failure to keep his ordination vows, as well as "not taking seriously the life of the denomination" with respect to homosexuality.
If the charges sound vague, it is possible that they are worded to allow room for maximum compromise, Dr. Meeter said. His book, "Meeting Each Other in Doctrine, Liturgy and Government," is used to train seminarians.
"The General Synod is how the church thinks," said Dr. Meeter. "In the same way a Supreme Court ruling like Brown v. Board of Education becomes precedent, the Synod is where we test what we think."