Presbyterians Investigate Pa. Gay 'Marriage' Complaints
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) is investigating complaints against another ordained minister who presided over same-sex “marriages" despite denominational laws prohibiting such blessings.
On Mar. 29, the investigative committee of the Pittsburgh Presbytery will be meeting with the Rev. Janet Edwards, a minister who came under public scrutiny last year after she “married” two Wheeling, W.Va., lesbians.
Edwards, a longtime activist for gay rights, acknowledged that she wed the women in a Pittsburgh area ceremony on June 25, 2005, but said she doesn’t think she violated her ordination vows.
“Marriage is a sacred union between people who are committed to each other, without regard to gender,” said Edwards, according to the Presbyterian News Service.
The Presbyterian Church, like most other mainline denominations, considers the homosexual lifestyle to be unbiblical, and prohibits its ministers from engaging in gay relationships or presiding over homosexual “marriages.” However, the highest Presbyterian court in 2000 ruled that ministers may bless same sex unions as long as they don’t equate such relationships with marriage.
Several Pittsburgh-area ministers and elders have filed complaints against Edwards, though no charges have been filed and no church trial date has been set. Should the investigative committee take up the complaints, Edwards would be the third minister in recent years to face charges for “marrying” same-sex couples.
In the latest such trial, the Rev. Jane Adams Spahr was acquitted of all charges despite her admitting to performing “weddings” for two lesbian couples. The controversial Mar. 3 decision in the Redwoods Presbytery found that Sphar was “acting within her right of conscience in performing marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples” because the denominational reservation for heterosexual marriage is “a definition, not a directive.”
Renewal leaders have already called for an appeal of the court decision.
According to the Presbyterian News Service, Edwards said she does not know how Spahr’s ruling would effect her own, especially in the more conservative Pittsburgh Presbytery.
“It’s unpredictable, as I see it right now,” she said.
The investigative committee has up till August of this year to request a trial against Edwards. The main role of the committee will be to examine the complaints, facts, and circumstances, and determine whether there is a basis for bringing charges.
Edwards was ordained by the Pittsburgh Presbytery in 1977, served as its moderator in 1987, and is assigned as an “at large” minister. She is also a distant descendent of renowned Evangelical preacher Jonathan Edwards, who is best known for his sermon “Sinners and the Hands of an Angry God” and his fiery call to repentance.
Edwards has been married for nearly 25 years to her husband, Alvise, and is the mother of two sons aged 19 and 21. She received a bachelor’s degree in government and international studies from Harvard University and her M.Div from Yale Divinity School. She is also a board member of More Light Presbyterians – the largest LGBT rights group within the PC(USA).
The two women she married, Brenda Cole, 52, and Nancy McConn, 65, legally tied the knot in Canada several days after the Presbyterian ceremony. McConn is a lifelong Presbyterian and Cole is a practicing Buddhist.
