No decison yet on gay marriage

THE Scottish Episcopal Church has not yet made any final decision on the subject of marriage between same sex couples (“Church is first in UK to hold gay marriages”, The Herald, June 1). At present, the church’s canon on marriage includes a statement that marriage is understood to be between a man and a woman. Any change to the canons requires a two-year process of first and second “readings”. The first stage of this debate took place in 2016 when the Synod accepted a first reading of a proposed change to remove any doctrinal statement from the canon. At its meeting next week, the General Synod will consider whether to give the change a second (and final) reading. If passed, the canon will in effect recognise that within the church there are different understandings of marriage. At this second reading change, a two-thirds majority of votes is needed in each of the separate houses of Synod (Bishops, Clergy and Laity) – the first reading required only a simple majority. The result of the vote next week is not a foregone conclusion and a wide variety of views are likely to be represented in the debate.

If the Synod agrees the second reading, it would enable the possibility of weddings between couples of the same sex to be solemnised in some of our churches. It would not be the case that bishops would decide on a case by case basis the churches in which such weddings could take place. Bishops would be able to nominate clergy to the Registrar General for Scotland for authorisation to conduct such weddings and the process for such nominations would take careful account of the pastoral situation in the local church. No member of clergy would be obliged to solemnise a marriage against their conscience.

If the vote is passed the Scottish Episcopal Church would not in fact be the first church in the UK to take such a step since others have already done so.

John F Stuart,

Secretary General,

Scottish Episcopal Church, 21 Grosvenor Crescent, Edinburgh.