Trial Update: Summary of Decision

Thursday, October 02 2008 @ 03:15 PM by Anonymous

A copy of the PJC decision is available here. A summary of the events of the decision are below:

At 2:40 PM today, the Permanent Judicial Commission read its decision aloud. This is a summary. An exact transcript of the decision will be available on pcusa.org eventually. The PJC found Rev. Edwards not guilty by a margin of 0 to 9.

The charges were filed in a timely manner. Although charges related to the same ceremony were filed two years ago, the previous dismissal was procedural, not on substantive grounds. The accused has not demonstrated that these charges are the same.

The Commission summarized the history of the case: the ceremony officiated by Edwards in 2005, and the previous round of charges that the Investigating Committee dealt with in 2006-2007.

Verdict:

The Prosecuting Committee offered eight scriptures, but gave no explanation of how Rev. Janet Edwards violated them.

This commission's decision depends on the Prosecuting Committee's demonstration of what happened on June 25, 2005, and how the ceremony violated the constitution. "In order for this commission to find that the accused was guilty of violating the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA), it must first determine that the ceremony was prohibited by the Constitution. ... For the purposes of this discussion, the commission will define a 'purported marriage' [the phrase used in the charges] as one in which the officiant believes the ceremony to be the same as a marriage."

"The Prosecuting Committee has failed to meet the burden of proof that the accused carried out a marriage ceremony at all."

Pennsylvania civil law defines marriage as male-female, so a marriage between two women cannot be a marriage regardless of what occurred in the ceremony. Because the Book of Order does not recognize a same-sex marriage, it cannot be an offense to attempt to do the impossible.

Therefore, the commission does not find that the accused committed an offense by performing a ceremony between two people of the same gender.

Also, there is no evidence that the accused held out the ceremony as a marriage. It could be inferred from the order of service, but it has not been proved. The accused's belief about whether the ceremony was a marriage has not been proved, either.

The decision in Spahr states that "one cannot construe same-sex ceremonies as marriages for the purpose of disciplining someone, but not as marriages for ecclesial purposes."

Therefore, the Permanent Judicial Commission finds the Rev. Janet Edwards not guilty on the first charge, by a vote of 0-9.

On the second charge, in addition to the foregoing:

There is no evidence to support the contention that the accused held herself out as acting as a minister of Word and Sacrament of the Presbyterian Church (USA) when presiding over the ceremony in question. Therefore the commission does not find beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused was acting in defiance of the Constitution and the pronouncements of the PCUSA about such ceremonies, as the pronouncements existed at the time of the ceremony.

Therefore, the Permanent Judicial Commission finds the Rev. Janet Edwards not guilty on the second charge, by a vote of 0-9.

Therefore, this commission finds the defendant not guilty.

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