The Church of Scotland has voted in favour of allowing parishes to appoint practicing homosexual men and women as ministers.
Liberal
The Church’s General Assembly in Edinburgh backed a motion to affirm the Church’s “current doctrine and practice in relation to human sexuality.”
But it voted in favour of permitting congregations with liberal views on marriage and sexual ethics to opt out of the policy by appointing those in same sex relationships to be their ministers if they wish.
The proposal must be ratified by regional presbyteries and then approved by the General Assembly in 2015 before it can be written into Church law.
Criticism
Religious leaders have criticised the move, describing it as a “betrayal” of biblical truth that will alienate Church members.
Reverend David Randall, a minister of the Kirk, said the issue “has been forced upon us by the revisionists who want us to turn our backs on what common sense tells us”.
He asked: “Are we to stand by scripture or are we to go with the flow of social trends?”
Split
Last June, St George’s Tron in Glasgow and its congregation of 500 splitfrom the Church of Scotland following a vote by the General Assembly on the issue of practicing homosexual clergy in 2011.
Dr William Philip, the minister of St George's Tron, described the vote in favour of ordaining ministers in same-sex relationships as having “marginalised the Bible, the written word of God.”
Gilcomston South in Abderdeen – which has over 300 members - left the Church of Scotland over the same issue earlier this year.
The church was banned from holding its Sunday services at a hotelafter clients complained that its traditional beliefs on marriage and sexual ethics were “offensive”.
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