Online campaign against gay minister

05/05/2009

Schism within Church of Scotland over Aberdeen Reverend

Over 200 Church of Scotland ministers have signed an online petition against the appointment of a gay minister.

The Church's General Assembly will rule on the case of Reverend Scott Rennie, the minister at Queen's Cross Church in Aberdeen, later this month.

Members of the the Kirk are warning that failure to overturn the appointment and "by refusing to condone homosexual practice in general" failure to senior clergy could provoke a mass walkout.

The online petition reads: "We urgently alert all commissioners to the 2009 General Assembly to the extreme gravity of the situation.

"We urge the Assembly to support the position of those who stood to defend Christian orthodoxy in Aberdeen Presbytery, and ensure instead that the Church will apply and assert in practice its clear doctrinal position on all matters of marriage and human sexuality, by refusing to condone homosexual practice in general, and among its leaders in particular."

It has attracted support from more than 230 Kirk ministers - one fifth of the clergy - and almost 2,000 Church of Scotland members, as well as more than 3,000 other church members around the globe.