Kirk appoints homosexual minister amid 12,000 protests
From Anglican Mainstream website:
The former Bishop of Edinburgh, the Rt Rev Richard Holloway, has welcomed the first appointment of an openly gay minister to the Church of Scotland. He told The Church of England Newspaper that he was ‘happy’ with the assembly’s decision to appoint the Rev Scott Rennie to a church in Aberdeen. Mr Rennie’s appointment has been hailed as a ‘landmark decision’ by gay rights campaigners. “I don’t have any problems with appointing gay clergy in good standing to ministerial appointments,” the former Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church said.
He went on to say: “It took 1,800 years for the Church through an evangelical movement to get rid of slavery and another couple of hundred years to get rid of prejudice towards women. I think prejudice towards gays will take a little longer but I think this is a significant step.”
He added: “And of course, there are lots of gay clergy in the Anglican Church.”
The Church of Scotland’s General Assembly voted 326 to 267 in favour of the appointment. However, more than 12,000 Christians — including many ministers from the Church of Scotland — signed an online petition against it. Since the debate many evangelical groups have said they will withdraw their funding from the Church of Scotland in protest. Aware of the controversy surrounding the decision, the Church of Scotland has since ordered a moratorium regarding the appointment of any more gay clergy to the ministry.
Commenting on the appointment, Canon Chris Sugden of Anglican Mainstream, said the former Bishop of Edinburgh was wrong to compare the gay issue to the abolishment of slavery. He said: “This is a case of mixing apples and oranges, it’s a category mistake.” He added: “These three cases [slavery, women, gays] are not comparable. Nowhere is slavery commended in the Bible — it is always mitigated.”
Canon Sugden added: “Same sex behaviour is clearly contrary to the Bible’s teaching about marriage and the Bible expressly teaches about God’s will for human behaviour. The Bible is also explicit about appropriate behaviour of the households of those who are called to lead and teach the church.”
By Matt Cresswell, CEN
