After years
of deliberation, church allows congregations to appoint a minister or deacon
who is in a same-sex civil partnership
The Guardian, Press Association, 16 May 2015
 |
| Rev Dr Angus Morrison was installed as moderator of the general assembly, after withdrawing from the role last year to undergo treatment for cancer. Photograph: Rex /Shutterstock |
The Church
of Scotland has voted in favour of allowing people in same-sex civil
partnerships to be called as ministers and deacons.
The
decision was made by the General Assembly on the Mound in Edinburgh on
Saturday, where the motion was passed by 309 votes in favour and 182 against.
The outcome
is the culmination of years of deliberation within the church.
The motion
has faced a series of debates and votes before the final decision was arrived
at this afternoon.
This
included 31 of the church’s presbyteries endorsing the move to 14 who opposed
it.
It means
the church has adopted a position which maintains a traditional view of
marriage between a man and woman, but allows individual congregations to “opt
out” if they wish to appoint a minister or a deacon in a same-sex civil
partnership.
In a speech
later today, the outgoing moderator, Very Rev John Chalmers, is expected to
say: “We cannot go on suffering the pain of internal attacks which are designed
to undermine the work or the place of others. It’s time to play for the team.
“And let me
be very clear here – I am not speaking to one side or another of the
theological spectrum. I am speaking to both ends and middle.
“It is time
to stop calling each other names, time to shun the idea that we should define
ourselves by our differences and instead define ourselves by what we hold in
common – our baptism into Christ, our dependence on God’s grace, our will to
serve the poor and so on.”
Co-ordinator
of the principal clerk’s office, Very Rev David Arnott, said: “The General
Assembly of the Church of Scotland decided today to allow individual kirk
sessions the possibility of allowing a nominating committee to consider an
application from a minister living in a civil partnership.
“During a
vacancy a kirk session may, but only if it so wishes, and after due
deliberation, agree to a nominating committee accepting an application from
such a minister. No kirk session may be coerced into doing so against its own
wishes. This decision was in line with a majority of presbyteries who voted in
favour of such a move.”
Because the
debate predates the legalisation of gay marriage, the proposed change mentions
only civil partnerships, not same-sex marriages.
The
Assembly will be asked on Thursday to consider amending Saturday’s new church
law to include ministers in same-sex marriages.
Nicola
Sturgeon MSP attended the opening of the general assembly for the first time as
first minister.
She
witnessed the installation of Rev Dr Angus Morrison as moderator of the general
assembly, after he had had to withdraw from the role last year to undergo
treatment for cancer.
She said:
“[It was] a pleasure to attend the opening ceremony of the general assembly and
see Rt Rev Angus Morrison installed as moderator.”
This year’s
lord high commissioner – the Queen’s representative at the Assembly – is Lord
Hope of Craighead, a retired Scottish judge.
He read out
a letter from the Queen to the assembly that praised Scotland’s national church
for the role it played during last year’s independence referendum, formation of
the new Churches’ Mutual Credit Union and the new “decade for ministry”
strategy to recruit new ministers.
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