The plot thickens

Brian Donnelly is certainly working over-time on this one.  Read today’s story in the Herald and then I’ll comment. 

Threat of plot to split kirk over gay ministers

Brian Donnelly

0 comments

Published on 9 Sep 2009

Evangelicals are plotting a split with the main body of the Church of Scotland over gay ordination and have held “large gatherings” across Scotland, The Herald can reveal.

The schism the Kirk tried desperately to avoid by postponing an open debate on appointing gay ministers and gagging members from discussing the issue at this year’s General Assembly is moving towards reality.

Churches opposed to the appointment of gay ministers have indicated their movement is growing and that new “leaders” are emerging.

Already, nearly 40 parishes have stood defiant against the Kirk by joining the evangelical group the Fellowship of Confessing Churches, saying they will not accept gay ordination.

They have posted covenants in churches supporting male/female relationships.

The Rev Louis Kinsey of St Columba’s in Aberdeen was one of six ministers in north-east Scotland that joined the fellowship after Rev Scott Rennie, who lives with his male partner, was confirmed to his appointment at Queen’s Cross Church in the city.  Rev Kinsey, a married father of two who has been a minister since 1991, defied the gagging order to declare that he believes a schism is “the only logical response to the Church of Scotland’s procrastination at the General Assembly”.  He said: “Groups of evangelicals have met; large gatherings in the north and in the central belt.   “My feeling is that some leadership is now beginning to emerge. A lot of serious and prayerful thought is happening but an obvious way forward has not become clear. “One or two ministers have left the Kirk. Even more members of the Kirk have done so. The summer break has been providential. It has offered time to think and discuss. We are all still in the process of weighing up the possibilities. “No obvious and overt activity should not be taken as a sign that nothing is going on.”

Parishes in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, the Western Isles and Inverness have joined the fellowship.  Ivor MacDonald of Kilmuir and Stenscholl Church in the Lochcarron and Skye Presbytery, said: “The proponents of homosexual ordination are pushing the Church on a rocky road. Their position is essentially a schismatic one.”  The fellowship’s covenant states that supporters “recognise God’s creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family”.  One minister in Glasgow, who asked not to be named, said: “The ministers in the north in particular are almost rebelling. They are talking of a breakaway at the meetings.”

It would be the largest schism in the Kirk since 1843 when a breakaway group formed the Free Church of Scotland after a clash over state intervention in the appointment of ministers The Free Kirk, which advocates male/female relationships, said while it would not wish to capitalise on the Church of Scotland’s crisis new members are welcome.  The Church, which said it is unable to discuss disciplinary breaches such as breaking the gagging order publicly, confirmed that at least one parish, which it refused to name, has indicated that it will withdraw congregational funding to the central Kirk.  Contributions from congregations are a key component of Church of Scotland affiliation and a move to withdraw funding is seen by some as the first step towards a split.

First of all let me make clear that I am not the anonymous minister from Glasgow.  I am not talking to the press. 

Secondly, as the minister of a church which has just voted to join the Fellowship of Confessing Churches we are not plotting to leave the Kirk: at least not yet.  We plan to stay and to argue for what we believe is Biblical orthodoxy in the matter of human sexuality.  If we leave, we don’t have a voice.  We have joined the FCC on that basis.  Our understanding is that the FCC gives like-minded congregations the opportunity to stand together in this matter.  Leaving the Kirk will be the last thing we do! Nor have we a policy of withholding funds. 

Having said that, we are not so naive as to imagine that our argument will necessarily win the day.  So evangelical ministers have been meeting to discuss what happened at the Assembly, how we are going to act during the course of the next two years, and what we might do post-2011.  No-one I know has made any definite plans to leave.

However, you might like to know that at one of those meetings, attended by nearly 200, it was stated authoritatively that before the Assembly the Scott Rennie camp had been in discussions with another denomination with a view to jumping ship should the decision go against him.  So please don’t point the finger at evangelicals and question our loyalty to the Kirk. 

Finally, let me encourage you to join the FCC.  The web-site will tell you all you need to know.