The question of gay clergy threatens to tear Anglicans in Scotland apart, the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC), Bishop David Chillingworth, has warned.In an interview published Aug 21 in the Scotsman, Bishop Chillingworth said the gay clergy question was “an issue that has been threatening to tear us apart, and many of us live across a spectrum in which out of one side of our minds we can say there is a justice and inclusion issue here, and out of the other there is a dialogue that needs to go on with the traditional teaching of the Church and what the Bible says.
"You can't wish either of those away. You have to deal with both,” he said. The Primus’ comments come as a push is underway from within the liberal wing of the Scottish church to end its ban on gay bishops and blessings, and in the wake of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s statement that gay clergy were outside the bounds of Anglicanism.
The current stance of the bishops of the SEC is to uphold the moratoria on gay bishops and blessings.
On March 23 the former Primus, Bishop Idris Jones of Glasgow and Galloway said the Scottish College of Bishops would refrain from authorizing rites for the blessing of same-sex unions and not permit the consecration of a non-celibate gay bishop.
The bishops said “that, for the time being, all who have responsibility within the process of the election of any new diocesan bishop should seek to act within the spirit of the requested moratorium,” and that “at the current time, members of the College remain of the view that it would, certainly be premature, and some would say wrong, to authorize a rite for [same-sex] blessings.”
However one of the SEC’s leading gay clergymen, the Provost of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow, the Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth last month called for the church and state to give same-sex couples equal access to marriage and to welcome gay clergy.
"Civil partnerships contain many of the same rights and privileges as marriage, but they are not the same. You can't celebrate a civil partnership in a church and if I tried to I'd be breaking the law,” he said, adding that he wanted “every gay couple to be able to walk down the street” or “down the aisle holding hands if they want to.”
"I don't know how long it will take before clergy can have a same-sex marriage ceremony that is acknowledged by the whole church, but I do believe it is far more likely to happen in Scotland rather than England” Dean Holdsworth told the Scotsman, adding that “in some ways Scotland is a more grown-up society than England."
The question of the morality of homosexuality was for many Christians a “fundamental truth" not amenable to compromise Bishop Chillingworth said. On July 27 Dr Rowan Williams said the homosexual or unchaste heterosexual “chosen lifestyle is not one that the Church’s teaching sanctions, and thus it is hard to see how they can act in the necessarily representative role that the ordained ministry, especially the episcopate, requires.”
The SEC was “trying to live with as much diversity as you can tolerate and hope the nature of the debate will change” and that in time the hard feelings on either side of the debate would soften, Bishop Chillingworth said.
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