Gay clergy row threatens mass resignations from Church of Scotland

Breakaway church risk with up to 150 ministers ready to quit over ordination of gay clergy 

guardian.co.uk, Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent, Monday 14 November 2011

Protesters in favour of gay ministers stand outside the Church of Scotland
 Assembly as it upheld a decision to appoint a gay minister. Up to 150 clergymen
now quit in protest at that decision Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

The Church of Scotland is braced for mass resignations over moves to allow the ordination of gay ministers, with up to 150 conservative and evangelical ministers threatening to quit, the Guardian can reveal.

The rebellion began after the Church of Scotland became the first major presbyterian church in the world to allow openly gay and lesbian ministers totake up parishes at its general assembly in May, despite evidence that 20% of its elders and office-bearers could leave in protest.

The general assembly also opened the way for the full ordination of gay ministers in the church within two years, indicating the Church of Scotland was ready to accept gay and lesbians on equal terms as heterosexual clergy for the first time since its foundation 450 years ago.

But senior sources in the church have told the Guardian they estimate as many as 150 serving ministers are actively preparing to leave or are considering resignation, in the largest schism in the Church of Scotland since 474 ministers quit in 1843 to form the Free Church of Scotland.

At least six ministers have already left since May, with one minister and his entire congregation at Gilcomston South in Aberdeen poised to leave as a group, in the first large-scale protest.

Mike Strudwick, the session clerk at Gilcomston South, said he expected the minister, Rev Dominic Smart and his congregation would resign en masse in the near future, but were still discussing the details of how and when it would leave.

He predicted other churches opposed to gay ordination could follow, and perhaps form a new breakaway church. He said he could "well believe" there were 150 ministers considering resignation.

"Maybe in five or six years down the line there will be a grouping of like-minded evangelical Presbyterian churches," he said. "It is more than conceivable that there will be a number of churches in the next months or years who will leave the Church of Scotland."

The split is the most significant fall-out since the ordination of Reverend Scott Rennie, an openly gay minister in a long-term relationship, to Queen's Cross church in Aberdeen in 2009. His appointment provoked a major dispute within the church, mirrored in the Church of England and other churches overseas, about the role and status of gay clergy and same-sex marriages.

In May this year, the general assembly, the Church of Scotland's ruling body, voted to endorse Rennie's appointment by allowing any gay minister who had declared their sexuality before 2009 to take up new posts and parishes in the church.

While effectively authorising gay clergy in the church, the general assembly voted to postpone a formal decision on allowing gay people to train as ministers and be fully ordained in future until a special theological commission reports in 2013. It also prevented serving gay ministers who declared their sexuality after May 2009 from taking up new posts until the general assembly meets in 2013.

Other figures in the church confirmed that other ministers are planning to resign, although some believe the revolt will not be large. One major obstacle is that any ministers who resigns loses their home, income and future pension payments. Congregations would lose their church and its buildings.

Critics of this strict ruling are thought to be planning to contest this at next May's general assembly, in a bid to give rebellious ministers greater protection.

Rev Ian Watson, a prominent member of the evangelical group Forward Together, said he believed only a handful of ministers would leave in the near future.

"I know of five who have actually left (or will do so in the next few weeks) and maybe one more for whom this is on the cards. I am not one of them," he said. "If there will be an exit, it will be two, three years down the line at least."

Rev Peter Johnston, of the liberal One Kirk group, which supports gay ordination, said he believed some rebels were threatening to leave simply to put pressure on the church, but hoped most critics wanted to keep talking about a harmonious solution.

The general assembly's decision "does leave them in an awkward position. I can grasp that but the majority of folk in the Church of Scotland want to see what the theological commission comes back with," he said. "From our perspective, we're still trying to keep dialogue open with all people."

Strudwick said: "It's very difficult to be in this position because we are the people who are sticking to the traditional views of the Church of Scotland.

"The Church of Scotland is putting itself out of line with the majority of Christians worldwide. It seems very difficult for ministers to be put in this position of sticking to their convictions but then losing their manse."

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