Texas ? More than 400 children taken from a polygamist sect’s ranch two months ago began returning to the arms of their tearful parents Monday, hours after a judge bowed to a state Supreme Court ruling that the seizure was not justified.

“It’s just a great day,” said Nancy Dockstader, whose chin quivered and eyes filled with tears as she embraced her 9-year-old daughter, Amy, outside a foster-care center in Gonzales, about 65 miles east of San Antonio. “We’re so grateful.”

Amid the joy, a church elder announced a shift in sect policy aimed at keeping such a seizure from ever happening again: Future marriages would only involve sect members who were of legal age.

“The church will counsel families that they neither request nor consent to any underage marriages,” said elder Willie Jessop, reading from a statement at the ranch in Eldorado.

Jessop said the church has been widely misunderstood and insisted marriages within the church have always been consensual.

He would not say whether marriages of underage minors had taken place in the past but said the sect as a whole should not be punished for the misdeeds of a few.