Minister who conducted
lesbian ‘wedding’ named
co-moderator of group
By John H. Adams, The Layman, October 30, 2008
Janet McCune Edwards, who escaped disciplinary charges in the Presbyterian Church (USA) after conducting a marriage ceremony for a lesbian couple, has been named co-moderator of More Light Presbyterians, a movement that repudiates submission to Scripture.
The nomenclature “More Light” is a declaration that the organization depends on revelation outside of Scripture and often contrary to the Bible.
Edwards was cleared of the charge of unconstitutionally marrying the couple after the Presbytery of Pittsburgh’s Permanent Judicial Commission decided that the service she conducted wasn’t really a marriage because the Book of Order says marriage is a union of a man and woman.
One headline writer described the ruling as “Court says she didn’t do what she did.” She fully admitted she married the couple even if the Presbyterian Church (USA) didn’t agree.
Her selection as co-moderator of More Light Presbyterians reflects a widening lobby effort beyond the organization’s current efforts to convince presbyteries to eliminate the “fidelity/chastity” ordination requirement in the Book of Order. The More Light lobby wants the PCUSA to give full endorsement to the marriage of homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders.
In June, More Light Presbyterians held a dinner meeting as an adjunct to the 218th General Assembly. A highlight of that meeting was the “wedding” of two men by a retired Presbyterian minister.
A few weeks before the General Assembly, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission cleared lesbian activist Jane Adams Spahr of charges of unconstitutionally marrying lesbian couples. It was the GAPJC that set the standard for reviewing the cases: It’s not a marriage if it’s not for a man and a woman.
That standard was a major departure from the GAPJC’s previous position on the issue. In a 2000 case, the court ruled that Presbyterian ministers could not conduct “holy unions” if they in any way resembled an authentic marriage.
The 2000 case was Mark G. Benton, et al, complainants, v. the Presbytery of Hudson River. Benton, a Presbyterian minister, filed the remedial action against the presbytery because it had declined to prosecute the ministers of South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
Susan DeGeorge and Joseph Gilmore, then the co-pastors of South Church, had told reporters for The Journal News of Westchester County, N.Y., and The New York Times, that they had conducted about 15 “holy unions” for same-sex couples at South Church. The news accounts quoted DeGeorge and Gilmore as using the terms holy union and marriage interchangeably.
The case was concluded on May 22, 2000, when the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission ruled that Presbyterian ministers were constitutionally prohibited from officiating at the weddings of same-sex couples.
The court did not forbid “blessing” services for same-sex couples, but it did say clearly that those services could not be called weddings or simulate weddings, such as the exchange of vows or rings. The court also said the services could not considered an endorsement of sexual behavior outside of marriage between a man and a woman.
On the More Light Web site, Edwards was quoted as saying, “These are thrilling times for More Light Presbyterians as the change we have worked toward for so long seems to be taking hold, as it should, in our Reformed church family which affirms that change is part of God’s good plan for us.”