The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Kirk considering gay marriages
Debate on report will decide next step
It is a proclamation that might have seemed as good as impossible a decade ago: gay marriages may soon be able to take place in the Church of Scotland.
A report to be debated at the Kirk’s General Assembly next month proposes a church committee should investigate the legal implications of allowing nominated ministers the right to carry out same-sex ceremonies.
The report by the Theological Forum of the Church of Scotland also suggests the Kirk should “take stock of its history of discrimination” and should“apologise individually and corporately” for failing to recognise the Christian vocation of gay people.
However it also wants to retain the ability for “contentious refusal” from those ministers opposed to same-sex marriage.
A church spokesman confirmed the assembly was being asked to consider referring the matter to the legal questions committee, which will look at how potential new church law fits with civil law.
If the measure is approved by the 2017 General Assembly, no final decision will be taken until 2018 at the earliest.
The report has been welcomed by the Rev Scott Rennie, the gay former minister of Brechin Cathedral, whose appointment to an Aberdeen parish in 2008 caused controversy.
Mr Rennie said the report was farreaching, thorough and impressive.
He added: “It recognises, at last, the diversity of people that make up the Church of Scotland, and Scotland at large.”
Former Broughty Ferry minister the Rev John Cameron of St Andrews said: “I totally agree with the theological forum’s call for the Church of Scotland to apologise for its discrimination against gay people – my only regret is that it did not make it years ago. The forum is also right to say there are insufficient theological grounds to deny individual ministers the authority to preside at same-sex marriages.
“I was a parish minister in Broughty Ferry for 35 years and if any of the gay couples in my congregation had asked me to marry them I would have agreed.
“It would have been great to be hauled to the bar of the General Assembly on a heresy charge and to argue the theological case with the Kirk’s homophobic fundamentalists.”
Tim Hopkins of the Equality Network said the news seemed to “positively recognise the diversity of the Kirk’s membership”, adding: “We think that the idea of allowing ministers who wish to to conduct same-sex marriages, while allowing those who disagree to decline to do so, would be welcomed by many in the Kirk.”
Gay marriage became legal in Scotland in 2014 but the Church of Scotland has protection under equalities legislation.
The Roman Catholic Church opposes same-sex marriage, while Scottish Episcopalians have moved to allow gay weddings – putting them at odds with the Church of England.