Minister Faces Sanction For Legal Marriages

For the second time in four years, the Reverend Jane Spahr, a retired Presbyterian minister, faces charges that she broke church law by marrying same-sex couples. The difference this time, however, is that the 67-year-old Spahr, who lives in San Francisco, could be disciplined for performing legal marriages, as the 16 couples were wed during the five months in 2008 when same-sex marriages were legal in California.

"Trying to sanction a minister for performing marriages...is unprecedented," Spahr's attorney, Scott Clark, tells the Santa Rosa, Calif., Press Democrat. But JoAn Blackstone, the prosecutor in the case, which gets under way in August or September, said California law is immaterial. Legal or not, same-sex marriages are "expressly prohibited," by the church.

Read the full Press Democrat story here.