NewsMax.com Wires
Monday, May 3, 2004

The permanent judicial commission of the Presbyterian Church (USA) synod that oversees churches in Ohio and Michigan ruled 6-4 that the denomination's constitution does not prohibit ministers from marrying same-sex couples.

The ruling, released Monday, reverses the lower church court's conviction of the Rev. Stephen Van Kuiken for marrying same-sex couples.

The constitution of the 2.5-million-member denomination defines marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman. The church's highest court ruled in 2000 that ministers may bless same-sex unions, but may not marry those couples.

That interpretation makes same-sex marriages impermissible, but "it avoids an outright prohibition by using the words 'should' and 'should not' in guidance for church bodies and ministers," the judicial commission ruled.

The commission said that the 2000 ruling failed to define the performance of a same-sex marriage by a minister as an offense subject to disciplinary trial.

The commission ordered that the lower court's decision be reversed and a rebuke of Van Kuiken dismissed.

The four dissenting commissioners called the decision "an improper and unjustified attempt to rewrite the clear and unambiguous meaning" of the section of the church's Book of Order that pertains to same-sex marriages. They said rewriting the section could be accomplished only by legislative amendment to the constitution.

Van Kuiken, a married heterosexual, was pastor of the Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati when he was removed as pastor. He was the first Presbyterian minister to be tried on accusations of marrying homosexuals.

"I am very grateful for the courage the commission has shown in reaching this landmark decision," Van Kuiken said Monday. "A new era has dawned in the Presbyterian Church."

Van Kuiken said he had nonetheless decided to resign from the Presbyterian Church (USA) and become pastor of a non-denominational congregation called The Gathering, made up of former members of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church who left the church after his ouster.

"I choose to stand by The Gathering, as they have stood by me," he said.

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