Kirk urged to make amends for history of gay discrimination
The Church of Scotland has been asked to apologise for its “history of discrimination” against gay people and could be a step closer to allowing ministers to perform samesex marriages.
A report to be debated at the Kirk’s General Assembly in May proposes having a church committee research allowing nominated ministers and deacons to carry out the ceremonies but wants to retain the ability for “contentious refusal” from those opposed to same-sex marriage.
The report by the Theological Forum of the Church of Scotland also calls for “the Church to take stock of its history of discrimination at different levels and in different ways against gay people and to apologise individually and corporately and seek to do better”. The report states: “We recognise that as a Church we have often failed to recognise and protect the identity and Christian vocation of gay people and believe that the Church as a whole should acknowledge its faults.”
A range of theological perspectives on same-sex marriage are examined in the paper. These range from the traditionalist opinion based on the view that biblical writers condemned same-sex acts meaning the Church had to forbid it to more “inclusive arguments” that the writing was made in “cultural contexts very different from our own and referred to individual acts rather than committed and faithful people willing to enshrine their relationships in vows before God”.
The report continues: “There are those who are reluctant to extend use of the term ‘marriage’ to same-sex couples on the grounds that what they do is intrinsically unnatural and a violation of the oft-claimed complementarity of a man and a woman.
“The counter argument is evidently that it is natural to them [homosexuality is more common in nature than may be realised].”
It concludes: “The Forum does not believe there are sufficient theological grounds to deny nominated individual ministers and deacons the authority to preside at samesex marriages.”
Gay marriage became legal in Scotland in 2014.
Rev Scott Rennie, the Kirk’s first openly gay minister, said he hoped the report would lead to ministers being able to carry out same-sex marriages, but added: “I would be surprised if it doesn’t.”