A new case may be brought against the Rev. Janet Edwards, the Presbyterian minister who was taken to church court for marrying a lesbian couple only to have the charges dropped because the court found they were filed four days late.

The Rev. James Yearsley, who filed the complaint against her last year, is gathering the signatures of ministers and elders in the Presbyterian Church (USA) who want to join him in pursuing the case. It would not be double jeopardy since she was never tried, he said.

"I'm still accumulating names. This means that the whole process starts over," said Mr. Yearsley, who has served churches in Pittsburgh Presbytery but now works in Florida.

Ms. Edwards admits conducting the marriage and believes a high church court ruling that ministers "should not" do so is not an absolute ban.

"One thing I learned from the past 14 months is that the judicial process is not the best place in our church to work out our disagreement -- but it is one place where we do that," said Ms. Edwards, who is on the staff of the Community of Reconciliation in Oakland.

"There is no agreement in my church over the place of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered people ... There are two flash points that bring our disagreements to conflict. One is ordination and the other is marriage. By presiding at the wedding of Nancy and Brenda I placed myself at one of those flash points and I will continue to respond as best I can."

Mr. Yearsley said he had considered filing a complaint against Pittsburgh Presbytery for mishandling the case but concluded he did not have evidence of deliberate misbehavior. "Suspicions are not a sufficient reason to paint with such a large brush," he said.

At Thursday's meeting of Pittsburgh Presbytery, a letter was read from the committee that investigated his original complaint and filed the charges. It expressed "deep disappointment at the outcome of a full year of work." The committee members said they had believed that the clock started ticking on the day they first met, but the church court ruled Nov. 15 that the countdown started earlier, when the committee's formation was announced to the presbytery.

In a related matter announced at Thursday's meeting, a regional church court has at least temporarily stopped enforcement of the presbytery's October ban on gay ordination and gay marriage.

The presbytery had voted that no clergy who are sexually active outside of heterosexual marriage could be approved to serve in Pittsburgh Presbytery and also barred clergy from conducting same-sex marriages. Three local ministers filed an appeal, arguing that the presbytery had overstepped its authority to interpret national church policy. The synod court agreed to stay the presbytery's decision until the appeal can be heard.