A Presbyterian
minister who was accused of violating the religion's
constitution when she conducted a wedding ceremony for a
lesbian couple has been cleared by the Pittsburgh
presbytery. The board voted 9-0 on Thursday to clear
Janet Edwards, who wed Nancy McConn and Brenda Cole in
2005.
"This does not
settle the disagreement among my colleagues," Edwards
said in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "But I
am glad that we have the space to follow God's call in
our own way."
Because the
Presbyterian Church and the government currently define
marriage as a union between a man and a woman, Edwards
cannot have actually performed a marriage between two
women, the court ruled, according to the Pittsbugh
Post-Gazette. Edwards has maintained for three
years that she officiated at McConn and Cole's
wedding.
The church
permits clergy to bless same-sex couples, but its
constitution says clergy "should not" perform wedding
ceremonies. Edwards argued that "should not" does not
translate to "must not," giving her leeway to perform
the ceremony.
"My ministry has
been that of reconciliation," she said, according to
the Post-Gazette. "I love the kind of
conversation that was had in these two days, when Christians
were able to talk together about our understandings of the
church and how to engage in the world."
The hearing
before the presbytery included three biblical scholars for
the defense who said Edwards abided by the church's
tradition by interpreting the scripture within its
cultural context.
"We know no other
word except 'marriage' that fully describes what we
share," Cole said in the Tribune-Review
article. "It's a covenant between us and God."
This week's
hearing was Edwards's second for the same accusation. The
presbytery dismissed a former complaint in 2006 on a
technicality. A group of 16 ministers filed a
complaint, reviving the case after the 2006 dismissal.
"I'm not
frustrated; this decision does not surprise me," the
Reverend James C. Yearsley, one of the plaintiffs in the
case, said in the Tribune-Review article. "This
is the direction of our denomination, and it is
accelerating. But it's the wrong decision for the
wrong reasons. It's a further attempt to accommodate
culture at the expense of scriptural authority and belief."
The presbytery
has 45 days to file an appeal. (Michelle Garcia, The
Advocate)
