PITTSBURGH (AP) – A Presbyterian minister was charged with breaking church law for performing a marriage for two women, a decision that comes as the church struggles with an ongoing feud about the Bible and homosexuality.

Janet Edwards, a parish associate at the Community of Reconciliation Church in Pittsburgh, said she was charged on Sept. 12 with presiding at the June 2005 wedding in contradiction of the church’s position on marriage.

The constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) reserves marriage for a man and a woman, although ministers may bless other types of “holy unions.”

“For me, scripture teaches that the message of marriage is the covenant – the love and commitment between the partners” and not their gender, Edwards said.

The Presbyterian Church, like other mainline denominations, has been struggling to stay unified despite differences about whether the traditional biblical view condemning gay and lesbian relationships should stand.

Presbyterians who support same-gender unions say the Bible’s social justice teachings on inclusiveness should prevail over what they see as an outdated view of homosexuality.

In June, a Presbyterian national assembly adopted what was meant to be a compromise plan regarding ordaining gays and lesbians. It limits sex to men and women who are married, but grants new leeway for local congregations to sidestep that church law and allow openly gay ministers to take office.

Church tribunals are expected to get a run of complaints that will test the compromise.

“I want to participate in the working out of this disagreement over the place of gays and lesbians in the church,” said Edwards, an advocate for gays and lesbians during her 28 years as a minister.

Nancy McConn, 66, a retired computer software developer from Dallas, W.Va., said: “Having a spiritual marriage was so important to both of us. We’re both spiritual people.”

Her partner, Brenda Cole, 52, a clinical psychologist and Buddhist, said she is confident that if they “continue to speak the truth” – that love and commitment, not gender, matters – “the church will come to see that reality.”

Edwards is also charged with irregularities contrary to the constitution for language she used because the marriage was interfaith; but she said the church allows such leeway.

Two fellow pastors who saw the marriage announcement in a newspaper made the complaint, Edwards said.

If found guilty, Edwards said she faces punishment ranging from a rebuke to removal from the ministry.

A message left for the Pittsburgh Presbytery, which has about 34,000 members, was not immediately returned.

In March, a longtime Presbyterian minister who was the first of her faith to be tried for officiating same-sex marriages was acquitted of the same charge.

A regional judicial commission of the Presbyterian Church ruled 6-1 that the Rev. Jane Spahr of San Rafael acted within her rights as an ordained minister when she married two lesbian couples in 2004 and 2005.