Minister Faces
New Charge for Marrying Lesbian Couple

A Presbyterian minister from Pittsburgh is again facing charges for performing a wedding for a lesbian couple in June 2005. The investigating committee of the Pittsburgh presbytery's permanent judicial commission will pursue new charges against Reverend Janet Edwards.

Edwards said in a statement released Tuesday that she is dismayed that marrying gay and lesbian couples like Brenda Cole and Nancy McConn has been a divisive issue in the church.

"I believe with my whole heart that my decision to perform Nancy and Brenda's wedding was faithful to my pastoral call. I did not arrive at the decision overnight," she wrote. "I spent many months in prayer and met with Nancy and Brenda numerous times before concluding that it falls within the Presbyterian tradition of reform to extend the blessings of marriage to all couples who show deep love and commitment for one another within the context of their faith in God."

Edwards also said that she has spoken with several other Presbyterian ministers who initially disagreed with same-sex marriage but now support it. She cited the Presbyterian Book of Order, which instructs the church to "give full expression to the rich diversity within its membership," which she said would be consistent with allowing gay marriage.

"As a Presbyterian, I belong to a tradition of reform in which change is both possible and necessary in Christian life," she wrote. "In that centuries-old tradition, difference and dialogue are welcomed. I am also called to the ministry of reconciliation that Christ entrusted to us. It is in this spirit of reconciliation and reform that I work to reconcile my church with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender faithful who have been shunned by our spiritual community, even as their lives testify to their love for God and neighbor."

Charges by the Presbyterian Church were dropped against Edwards in 2006 after the committee voted 8-0 that the case had been filed too late. The church's constitution defines marriage as a strictly heterosexual institution, though ministers are allowed to bless other types of "holy unions," the Associated Press reported in 2006. That same year another Presbyterian minister, Reverend Jane Spahr, was acquitted for marrying two lesbian couples in 2004 and 2005, though that ruling has been appealed. (The Advocate)