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Evangelists block gay minister
Standard of the Church of Scotland
A Church of Scotland minister may not be allowed to practise because he is gay
Evangelicals in the Kirk have lodged a motion – or overture – to prevent Scott Rennie from taking over his post in an Aberdeen church.
Mr Rennie, 37, is a divorced father of one and has said that he intends to move his male partner into the manse if he gets the job at Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeen.
The overture reads: “The Church shall not accept for training, ordain, admit, re-admit, induct or introduce to any ministry of the Church anyone involved in a sexual relationship outside of marriage between a man and a woman.”
Ivor MacDonald, a minister at the Kilmuir and Stenscholl Church on Skye defended the motion. Mr Macdonald stated: “Scott Rennie should be blocked from becoming the minister at Queen’s Cross because he has been open that he is a practising homosexual.”
A spokesman for the evangelical group Forward Together said: “If the Church accepts homosexuality as legitimate practice for Christians it will demoralise the churches in Africa and Asia who are in competition with Islam that capitalises on moral degeneracy in the west.”
The overture follows a row over an editorial in Life and Work, the Church of Scotland’s editorially independent magazine, which recently backed civil partnerships and openly gay ministers. See the full story here
