Mission Presbytery calls for new investigation in gay-marriage case The Layman Online Friday, July 8, 2005 An investigating committee's dismissal of a complaint against a Presbyterian minister accused of conducting services of marriage for same-gender couples has been overturned by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Mission Presbytery in Texas. Photo by Roni Gendler This photograph of the Rev. Jim Rigby, conducting a marriage service for a same-sex couple on the campus of the University of Texas, appeared in The Daily Texan on April 23, 2004. The couple were identified as Cody Sadler and Ryan Richard, male students. A review committee for the commission announced in a July 5 letter that the committee's decision was set aside because it was "was based upon an inappropriate investigation." It sustained a petition filed on behalf of the Rev. William J. Parr and Robert Brown, who brought the disciplinary complaint against the Rev. James "Jim" Rigby of Austin. Brown is a student at the University of Texas and Parr is pastor of his home church in Carrollton. Rigby is accused of presiding at the "marriage" of homosexual couples on a "marriage equality" day on the campus of the University of Texas in Austin. He did not dispute the charge and said he welcomed the accusation, according to a report in the Austin American-Statesman. "Either they have to strip me of my ordination, or the church has to change," Rigby told the newspaper. The Daily Texan quoted Rigby as saying, ""We're not staging this as a Las Vegas-style wedding chapel. We're talking about faithful relationships. Marriage is not about sexuality or making babies." The evidence against Rigby included a photograph of him presiding at a "wedding" service for a homosexual couple. In a letter to Paul Jensen, a California attorney who represented Parr and Brown, Terry Nelson, the stated clerk for Mission Presbytery, said the presbytery "will appoint a new Investigating Committee that will make appropriate contact with your clients through you as they carry out their appointed task." "This represents a major reversal of the trend in the denomination where presbyteries are ignoring the church's constitution," Jensen said. "Here is one presbytery that is willing to make the hard decision to uphold the constitution when it is flagrantly violated by a minister trying to destroy the integrity of our faith and our constitution." The complaint against Rigby accused him "of violating his ordination vows and disturbing the peace, unity and purity of the church by 'marrying' homosexual couples and ordaining as elders persons Rigby knew to be unrepentant, self-confessed, practicing homosexuals." In his petition asking the presbytery to review the case, Jensen said, "The grounds for this petition are that overwhelming evidence was presented to the Investigating Committee of the truth of the accusations, which evidence therefore constituted such cause to file charges such that the decision of the Investigating Committee not to file charges constituted an abuse of its discretion and a failure to fulfill its duties under D-10.0202." Jensen said the evidence before the committee "constituted clear and unequivocal evidence" of grounds for the accusation, including: "On or about April 23, 2004, the accused officiated at what he called and believed to be a 'marriage ceremony' between two persons of the same sex. "Within the two years last past, the accused has on other occasions officiated at what he called and believed to be a 'marriage ceremony' between two persons of the same sex. "Within the two years last past, the accused has on more than one occasion participated in the ordination and installation of persons whom he believed to be self-affirming practicing homosexuals, including but not limited to Elder Suze Miller. "On or about September 9, 2004 the accused told Robert Brown that the foregoing facts were true, and that he was not constrained by the provisions of the Book of Order preventing such actions on his part, and that he would not deny this accusation. "On or about June 28, 2004 the accused stated in a meeting between himself, Jane Spahr, Lisa Larges and Paul Rolf Jensen that the foregoing facts were true, and that he was not constrained by the provisions of the Book of Order preventing such actions on his part. "The accused gave an interview to Matt Lum of the Texas Triangle wherein the accused stated that he was not bound by the provisions of the Book of Order, 'no matter what' it required, and that 'we are never going to obey discriminatory laws here at St. Andrew's.' "The accused has given numerous other press interviews wherein he stated that the foregoing facts are true."

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