More on the Commission

Here’s a more detailed version of events.  I’ve tried to keep it factual.  The outcome raises so many issues but at this stage it’s best not to get into that. 

 The end result was that the Commission decided to uphold the dissent and complaint against the Presbytery of Hamilton.  The practical result is that the deliverance brought in the name of Rev. Dr. John McPake at May’s General Assembly (amended after long debate)—the moratorium—is to be interpreted broadly and not restrictively.  When it instructs Courts, Councils and Committees of the Church not “to make decisions in relation to contentious matters of sexuality, with respect to Ordination and Induction” that includes training for the ministry, which, by its very nature looks towards ordination and induction.   Should a Court, Council or Committee be faced with making a decision in this regard they must decline to do so, sisting the matter if appropriate, until 31^st May 2011. 

The history of the case, briefly, is that a man living in a civil partnership applied to the Presbytery of Hamilton to be nominated as a candidate for the ministry at their September meeting.  He had already received advice from the central church—the Principal Clerk’s office, the Ministries Council executive—that the moratorium did not cover training for the ministry and that being in a same-sex relationship was no bar to his becoming a candidate. 

When the Presbytery’s Ministry Committee first considered the application they concluded that the effect of the moratorium meant they must sist the application until May 2011.  

Between making that decision and the night of the Presbytery meeting the Presbytery Clerk received advice from the Principal Clerk that to decide not to nominate (ie, to sist) was in fact making a decision, and therefore in breach of the moratorium.  The moratorium only covered ordinations and inductions and nothing else. 

Therefore, on the night of the Presbytery meeting, the Presbytery’s Ministry Committee met and decided to change its recommendation to Presbytery, to the effect that the application be accepted, with the rider that it was subject to the outcome of the 2011 Assembly.  This would allow the prospective candidate to begin training in the full knowledge that at a future date he may not be able to proceed to ordination.

This recommendation was accepted by the Presbytery. 

 While it might seem that the Presbytery had reached a wise compromise, it presented the wider church with a problem.  Was this indeed the outcome May’s General Assembly had in mind?  Some felt that this was too narrow an interpretation.  While Hamilton Presbytery might wish to add a rider to their acceptance of the candidate, other Presbyteries might not.   Were this decision to go unchallenged, it would appear that the Church of Scotland had not decided not to train sexually active homosexuals for the ministry. 

Many believe that the moratorium provided the church with the chance to calm down.  The relative peace which has descended upon the church would be endangered if it become known that the moratorium was being applied so strictly as to be null and void for all practical purposes. 

The case for the complainers was presented by Rev. Iain Murdoch, graciously and meticulously.  With the help of a printed transcript of the three hour long “McPake debate” he and others reminded the Commission of the atmosphere that afternoon.  The peace and unity of the church was the Assembly’s greatest desire.   Nothing was to happen, nothing at all “in respect to Ordination and Induction.” 

Those who argued for the Presbytery insisted that what the deliverance said was precisely what they had meant—no more no less. 

The Commission agreed with the complainers, by 43 votes to 38.