The Times Online - Ruth Gledhill Weblog
February 23, 2006
By Ruth Gledhill
The Presbyterian church, the national church in Scotland, will become the first mainstream Christian denomination to authorise same-sex blessing services if its General Assembly approves the legal report recommending this step in May. The proposal is expected to provoke wide condemnation from conservatives.
The Church of Scotland has a strong evangelical tradition and some insiders are quietly but deeply fearful of the possibly schismatic implications. One implication is that, if approved, it will dramatically increase pressure on the nation’s other established church, the Church of England, to afford similar recognition to the increasing numbers of gay couples taking advantage of the new civil partnerships legislation. In the US the shortlisting of not one but two gay clerics, a gay man and a lesbian woman, for an episcopal appointment in California, is likely to accelerate schism. See Kendall Harmon's blog.
The election looks likely to go ahead, in spite of the Archbishop of Canterbury's caution a few days ago that the Episcopal Church should not end its moratorium on consecrating non-celibate homosexual priests to the episcopate until the Communion is of common mind. Read George Conger's story on this from the WCC meeting in Brazil.
The fact that Gene Robinson, the communion's first gay bishop, has begun treatment for alcoholism is not directly relevant to the gay debate although it has increased my own sympathy for him. (That's not necessarily a good thing, btw. As AA members say, if sympathy is what you want, look in the dictionary between s**t and syphillis.) I must confess that, as a person always ready to identify with the potential "alcoholic within" any of my acquaintances, I completely missed the signs when interviewing Gene for The Times a few months ago. Whatever the rights and wrongs, it would be interesting to know the extent to which his apparent denial of the cataclysmic consequences his appointment would bring about was related to the denial of the illness that every alcoholic suffers from until they reach 'rock bottom'.
Meanwhile, if the analogy can be forgiven in the circumstances, the Anglican Church heads relentlessly downwards towards its own rock bottom over gays. The Church of England has told clergy they cannot conduct civil partnership blessings, although the bishops are in disarray, all semblance of collegiality at an end. By contrast, Liberal Judaism has authorised a service for civil partnerships. And the fast growing community of Metropolitan churches, which attract congregations with many lesbian and gay worshippers, also conducts blessing services.
The Church of Scotland’s Legal Questions Committee will tell the General Assembly that “an obvious new pressure” on the Church is “the reality of civil partnerships being entered into and fully recognised in law.” There was a brief story in The Times today.
The committee says there is no presumption in law that a sexual relationship exists where a civil partnership has been entered. “An arrangement may exist between friends solely for legal and financial reasons,” the report says.
In fulfilling its obligations in relation to civil law, the report suggests that the Church cannot do other than recognise the legal reality.
The report reminds ministers that although the Church has an independent spiritual jurisdiction, it is subject to civil law in matters such as pension rights.
The report says: “There is no current expectation that civil law will devise the equivalent of a marriage ceremony and so the Church doesn’t have to consider whether ministers would become celebrants for that legal function. However, those who are religious cannot have any religious element in their civil partnership ceremony. So it is not surprising to find them turning to a sympathetic minister to provide some form of religious ceremony to mark the event.”
The General Assembly is to be asked to agree that any minister who does a gay wedding will not be disciplined, while permitting ministers to refuse to conduct the ceremonies if it is against their conscience.
The committee admits its report is“permissive” in tone but argues that it will“protect conscience on all sides”.
The Rev Richard Kirker, of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, said: "The established Church in Scotland - and a Presbyterian one at that - has succeeded in exposing the threadbare theology on civil partnerships adopted by the Church of England by urging a far more positive and permissive response from its members and ministers. The Church of Scotland is clearly less far less fearful and more at peace with itself over same-sex relationships than the ill-fated, glaringly unworkable Church of England policy which is doing incalculable harm to its mission and credibility."
The debate in the Presbyterian church mirrors that taking place also in the Scottish Episcopal Church and indeed throughout the Anglican Communion. The traditional Anglican body, the Scottish Anglican Network, has posted a copy of the Kirk's statment and a response to that of episcopal primus Bruce Cameron. The response they have posted to another Church in Wales statement could apply to both Kirk and the UK Anglican churches however. The conservatives say: "We are concerned that the Bishops 'would not wish to prevent what the law allows for Church members, both lay and clerical.' If this were to be taken as a position of principle, it would run counter to Christian tradition, practice and theology from the time of the apostles (Acts 4.19) to the present day. There are many things which the law allows (adultery, for instance) but which are contrary to Christian teaching for Church members."
Meanwhile, Anglican clergy in England are gaily flouting their Church's own ban, and it appears there is nothing whatsoever that the bishops can do about it.
Posted by Ruth Gledhill on Thursday, 23 February 2006
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