San Francisco, USA - A Presbyterian Church trial of a minister who conducted lesbian weddings ended in California with a ruling that she did nothing wrong.
Reverend Jane Spahr had argued that she was true to her religious faith and her conscience when she defied church rules and officiated lesbian weddings in 2004 and 2005.
A two-day trial by a Presbyterian Church judicial commission in the city of Santa Rosa north of San Francisco ended with the panel siding six-to-one with the openly lesbian priest.
"It was a wonderful decision," Spahr said, her eyes watering. "It means that our relationships matter and that love matters. It means something that the church said yes to us."
A church prosecutor had argued Spahr, 63, should have obeyed Presbyterian Church (USA) policy restricting marriage to heterosexual couples and simply blessed same-sex unions.
Spahr should have petitioned church leaders for policy change instead of ignoring it, the prosecutor contended. Spahr was ordained a priest in 1974.
"We find that Spahr was acting within her right of conscience in performing marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples," the judicial commission wrote in its decision.
"We affirm that the fundamental message of the Scriptures and Confessions is the proclamation of the Good News of God's love for all people. It is a message of inclusiveness, reconciliation, and the breaking down of barriers that separate humans from each other."
Spahr was the first of a handful of US Presbyterian ministers to face church trial for conducting same-sex marriages. She testified at trial that she did not discriminate and had presided over hundreds of gay or lesbian marriages.
"We are thrilled that the Presbytery has followed God in realizing that our marriage deserved the recognition of all marriages," said Annie Senechal, who testified as a witness in the case.
Spahr married Senechal to Sherrill Figuera in 2005.