PCUSA's highest court won't accept appeal on gay marriages The Layman Online Wednesday, May 19, 2004 Although its own ruling was challenged, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly has dismissed an appeal in a synod court's ruling that says Presbyterian ministers may "marry" homosexual couples. Laurie Griffith, judicial projects manager in Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick's Office of the General Assembly, said the General Assembly PJC dismissed the case because, "There is no way that the court could hear a case involving someone who is no longer a Presbyterian," according to a news story by the Cincinnati Enquirer. While the ruling by the Synod of the Covenant PJC did deal specifically with A. Stephen Van Kuiken, a Cincinnati minister who has left the Presbyterian Church (USA), it also addressed the broader issue of whether ministers in the denomination may conduct "marriage" services for homosexual couples. The synod court's ruling made the implications of its decision clear. Commenting on a previous decision by the General Assembly court in Benton et al v. Presbytery of Hudson River, the synod court said the General Assembly court did not absolutely prohibit Presbyterian ministers from conducting marriages for two people of the same sex: "While stating that same-sex marriages are impermissible, it [the Benton ruling] avoids an outright prohibition by using the words 'should' and 'should not' in guidance for sessions and ministers which the Preface to the Book of Order defines as 'highly recommended.' Likewise, the 1991 authoritative interpretation upon which the Benton decision is based uses the words 'would not be proper.' "Thus, both interpretations fail to define the performance of a same-sex marriage by a minister as an offense subject to disciplinary trial. To interpret the 1991 authoritative interpretation and Benton otherwise requires a new authoritative interpretation or constitutional amendment." Furthermore, the synod court ordered, as is required in PCUSA judicial processes, that its decision be reported to the Presbytery of Cincinnati and the Synod of the Covenant and that the full text of the decision be entered into their minutes. The irony of the synod court's 6-4 decision – which included a strong dissent by four court members, who said it "flies in the face of reason and logic" – is that synod denied the very meaning of the word "impermissible," which means illegal or not allowed. Without further word from the General Assembly court, Presbyterians in the Presbytery of Cincinnati and the Synod of the Covenant will be left in limbo – whether to follow the decision of the denomination's highest court or the ruling of a lower court. In civil law, lower court rulings prevail in the states or federal circuit courts in the regions where they are issued – unless or until the U.S. Supreme Court chooses to intervene, which it often does, particularly if it is a major issue. The synod court ruling was in response to Van Kuiken's appeal of his ouster – although he later announced that he chose no longer to be a Presbyterian minister. The presbytery was appealing the synod's decision. "It's like any other appeals court decision in that it stands unless it's overruled by a higher court," Van Kuiken told the Cincinnati Enquirer. Van Kuiken, the former pastor of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, was ousted from the pulpit and removed from the membership roll of the Presbytery of Cincinnati after he "married" a homosexual couple despite a presbytery court reprimand and order not to conduct illegal marriage services again.

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