Church of Scotland debate....
Have you heard the news??? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8066379.stm
Is this good news? Bad news? A fudge?
Or will this allow a space for people to realise that people can hold different views and that maybe, just maybe, the gospel will be enhanced?
posted by Rev. Alan Gibbon @ 9:53 PM
2 Comments:
I think it's basically good news.
Scott Rennie's appointment was upheld, a signal that many people in the Kirk are open minded enough to realise that you can, with a good conscience, be gay and a Christian, and exercise your pastoral and teaching gifts in the chruch.
Saturday evening's debate was fascinating, so the 4 hours passed quickly - helped by the comfy seats which I guess are a hangover from when the Scottish Parliament used the Assembly Hall.
The withdrawal of the Lochcarron overture is also good news. If it had gone through, I wonder how the Kirk would be hoping to police its minister's sex lives. Would all future interviews have to contain explicit questions about what people do in bed?
I welcome the study of human sexuality that the Kirk is embarking upon, though I doubt whether it will actually resolve anything - unless perhaps they can come to the conclusion that sexual practice is entirely a matter for personal conscience. But would that be acceptable to the evangelical wing of the Kirk?
However, I'm sorry that no openly gay clergy can be appointed during the next 2 years. And I hope that some of the existing gay clergy who have had to keep quiet about their sexuality may now feel able to come out into the open.
In Saturday's debate it was mentioned that the United Reformed Church has in effect left the gay question open. Maybe the Kirk needs to do the same - and live with the slightly uncomfortable idea that perhaps the issue will never be fully resolved.
I think they're being judgemental. (Of course, I am just by saying that)
Whose place is it to say what God thinks of homosexuality? I ain't second guessing Him. Are the CofS?
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