Backwoods Presbyterian
Puritanboard Amanuensis
Gay marriage celebrated
at General Assembly event
By Parker T. Williamson
Editor Emeritus
The Layman
Sunday, June 22, 2008
June 22, 2008 SAN JOSE -- Grooms Craig Wiesner and Derrick Kikuchi joined hands, signed a California marriage license, received a standing ovation and were declared legally wed at a General Assembly dinner on June 21 hosted by More Light Presbyterians. The Rev. Diana Gibson, former minister of First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, Ca. officiated at the ceremony.
The couple had been called forward to receive the David Sindt Award in recognition of their services among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. A spokesperson for More Light Presbyterians commended their activities on behalf of civil rights, economic justice, global issues, nonviolence, peace activism, educational pursuits and IT expertise. "They are a one-couple band!" she said.
In their acceptance remarks, Wiesner and Kikuchi affirmed that they were, in fact, a couple. "Our marriage was blessed on April 8, 1990 at First Presbyterian Church Palo Alto," declared Wiesner. Turning to Gibson, a Presbyterian minister in the audience who officiated at their 1990 ceremony, they asked, "Will you join us now to make this a civil marriage?"
"I will," she exclaimed as she approached the stage, a newly minted California marriage certificate in hand.
The couple then called out to Julie McDonald and Mitzi Henderson, who had witnessed their 1990 ceremony. "Will you be our witnesses tonight?" they asked.
"We will," responded McDonald and Henderson,as they joined the wedding party on stage.
After signing the license, Gibson said, "Eighteen years ago you were married in the eyes of God. Now by the authority newly granted by the state of California, I declare that you are married in the eyes of the state."
Same-gender marriage is not officially recognized by the Presbyterian Church (USA). Since a "definitive guidance" that was issued by the denomination's highest court in 2000, Presbyterian ministers have been constitutionally prohibited from performing marriages or marriage-like ceremonies. But the prohibition has been publicly violated and rarely enforced.
The Rev. Jane Spahr, who calls herself "a lesbian evangelist," conducted a marriage ceremony for two lesbians. A judicial complaint was filed, and a lower court found her guilty as charged, but on appeal the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission overturned the conviction. The high court ruled in May that, although both the couple and Spahr called the ceremony a marriage, it could not have been a marriage since by denominational definition same-gender marriage does not exist.
Spahr claimed victory but also expressed dismay that the court refused to call the ceremony a marriage. On June 20, the eve of the denomination's General Assembly meeting, she officiated at another well publicized wedding, this time in Marin County and under the imprimatur of California civil law.
Gibson's 1990 ceremony would not have been a chargeable offense because it occurred prior to the denomination's definitive guidance ruling. But the ceremony she conducted at the General Assembly on June 21 could be construed an offense under church law.
Gibson is now a retired minister, but as such she remains under denominational jurisdiction and could be subject to church discipline. However, any charge against her would be adjudicated by San Jose presbytery, a governing body that has carried the flag for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender liberation movements. It is unlikely that a complaint against Gibson would even make it to trial in her presbytery, much less result in conviction.
The Kikuchi/Wiesner nuptials were staged before scores of General Assembly commissioners who will vote later this week on proposals to create a new, gender-free definition of marriage and to do away with the denomination's constitutional standards on sexual behavior.
Also receiving adulation at the More Light Presbyterian dinner was Palo Alto's First Presbyterian Church, recipient of the 2008 Inclusive Church Award. Accepting the award for his congregation, Pastor Robert Martin said, "Four years ago I could never have imagined standing before this body because of what happened to me and my family."
Martin was referring to a judicial complaint that was filed against him in the Presbytery of Western North Carolina alleging that he denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. If found guilty by the presbytery court, Martin could have lost his ordination credentials, and until the matter was adjudicated, his installation as Palo Alto's new pastor was delayed. Western North Carolina's investigating committee declined to bring formal charges against Martin, so the case was dismissed before it could make it to trial.
In accepting the More Light Presbyterians' Inclusive Church Award, Martin expressed thanks to Spahr for inspiring him and the Rev. Don Stroud, his seminary classmate and a practicing homosexual whose ordination was affirmed by Baltimore Presbytery in defiance of the denomination's constitutional ban on such practices. Baltimore has declared itself a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender friendly presbytery that will not prosecute any complaint against persons who openly violate the denomination's sexual behavior standards.
Although the denomination's Biblical definition of marriage and its constitutional ordination standards will be hotly debated and could be changed by this General Assembly, many Presbyterians question what all the fuss is about since ordinations and same-gender marriages are already occurring and denominational officials refuse to enforce church law.
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and Hallelujah!!! that you left Sodom as I did this year.
