CINCINNATI -- A Presbyterian Church (USA) court convicted a minister Monday in the denomination's first trial for marrying same-sex couples in violation of church law.

The court gave the Rev. Stephen Van Kuiken the mildest possible punishment -- a public rebuke. He could have been temporarily suspended or removed from the ministry. He said he will appeal his conviction to a commission that oversees Presbyterian churches in Michigan and Ohio.

The court acquitted Van Kuiken of the charge that he ordained as deacons and elders gays who do not adhere to a church rule of chastity. The court said local congregations and their ruling boards select the people for ordination and it would not convict Van Kuiken of something not under his authority.

Van Kuiken, 44, pastor of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church in nearby Cincinnati, has acknowledged performing the ceremonies and ordaining gays. He says the Presbyterian Church (USA) is facing a crisis of theological intolerance, and he intends to continue both practices.

"I just have to be true to myself, and that's the best I can do," Van Kuiken told reporters outside Blue Ash Presbyterian Church in this Cincinnati suburb. "Our congregation (Mount Auburn) has always felt that these ceremonies are marriages in every way... gay people are equal."

Van Kuiken, a Presbyterian minister for 19 years, said he performed a same-sex marriage on April 12, four days after his trial, and he plans to perform another one next month.

Van Kuiken was the first minister to be tried on accusations of marrying homosexuals as a result of complaints filed by Presbyterian activists in about 20 locations around the country. Some complaints were investigated and dismissed for lack of evidence, and others are pending.

The activists demand that the 2.5 million-member denomination, based in Louisville, Ky., require its ministers and congregations to obey the Presbyterian constitution.

The Presbyterian Church follows the biblical interpretation generally held by major Christian denominations that marriage can be a covenant only between a man and a woman. The highest Presbyterian court ruled in 2000 that ministers may bless same-sex unions, but cannot marry such couples.

A guilty verdict required votes from at least five of the seven members of the Cincinnati Presbytery court. The vote on both charges was 6-1.

The dissenting votes were cast by Charles Brown, an elder at the Wyoming Presbyterian Church in suburban Cincinnati. He said he agreed that Van Kuiken was guilty of the same-sex marriage violation but believed that the minister should have been suspended. He also believed that Van Kuiken should have been found guilty of the other charge.

"The rebuke will not bring resolution and is thus inherently unfair to the Rev. Van Kuiken, his family and the church, since all of us will be forced to go through this exercise again," Brown said.

Mount Auburn Presbyterian has been ordaining gays as deacons and elders since 1991, and Van Kuiken has been performing same sex marriages since he came to the church. The minister, who is a married heterosexual originally from Grand Rapids, Mich., joined Mount Auburn about three years ago from the Church of the Apostles in suburban Minneapolis.

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