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Latest News
6th February 2008
The latest draft of a proposed Anglican Covenant was released today.
Read the full text here and an introduction here.
A PDF file of all the relevant documents is available here.
14th January 2008
The Faith and Order Board of the Scottish Episcopal Church has issued a response to the draft Anglican Covenant published at the Anglican Primates Meeting at Dar es Salaam in February 2007.
Read it here.
16th August 2007
Most out-of-date links have been updated, with the exception of a few external newspaper links.
5th June 2006
From the Church Times 26th May 2006
New Primus toes the line on gays by Bill Bowder
Scotland’s 50,000 Anglicans have a new leader. The Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway, Dr Idris Jones was elected by his fellow bishops to be Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church at a meeting in Dunblane on Thursday. The 62-year-old Welsh-born bishop, who is married with two sons, has been acting as senior bishop since 2000. He takes over from Rt Revd Bruce Cameron who stepped down after five years as Primus at the end of April, and who retires from his diocese of Aberdeen & Orkney at the end of June. The election had been postponed for a week after two candidates emerged. The new Primus was finally elected by ballot in an unusually competitive play-off with the Bishop of Edinburgh, the Rt Revd Brian Smith.
On Tuesday Dr Jones said that the difference between them was one of style, not of substance. "Isn't it exciting that there was the possibility of two people from whom the the choice had to be made?”
The new Primus warned that, despite the House of Bishops' past willingness to ordain homosexuaI people, in the light of the debate within the Anglican Communion, it would not introduce same-sex blessings or be willing to consecrate a homosexual bishop.
The Communion's line on on sexuality would hold until the next Lambeth Conference, he said. “After that, it’s anyone’s guess.”
But the debate on sexuality concealed a larger issue. “It affects congregations and dioceses and provinces and the Communion and that (question) is: how do you respect the minority view and hold it in fellowship while the general membership is in a different place?”
For the Scottish Episcopal Church, the minority was Evangelical, he said.
Reflecting on the state of religion in Scotland, he said disillusionment with the political process had left people wanting to find meaning in their lives. "They are open to finding the answer to that in God. But it remains the task of the Church to make the gospel acceptable to the people."
The Church was now mission-orientated, and would work in partnership with other Churches to spread the word. The Church had once thought that the most important thing was to be Episcopalian, but now it knew that it was to be Christian.
But the Bishop had bad news for those who longed for the organic unity of the Churches. "There is not a lot of mileage in organisational unity—it is not going to happen. It is about working together, and partnership at local level."
The Episcopal Church had more priests per communicant than any other Church in the Anglican Communion, he said, but they were not all stipendiary. "The non-stipendlary clergy have been the salvation of the Church through the unstinting service they have given."
In future, stipendiary clergy would have more of a position of oversight, helping the mission of the faithful. Unlike its southern neighbour, the Episcopal church was not struggling to pay clergy pensions. “ We need to raise the level of giving. But the finances are not compromised; we do not face bankruptcy or need to go into liquidation. But, if all the 45,000-50,000 communicant members of the Church were to commit an extra £1 a week, we would not only cover all our existing work, but also be able to engage in new work. The pension fund is much healthier than it was 15 years
ago. It is doing all right.”
7th April 2006
Statement on General Assembly Act re. Civil Partnerships
In the run-up to the General Assembly, Willie Philip, Church of Scotland minister of St George’s-Tron, Glasgow has released the following statement. Individuals and churches are invited to sign in support here.
A .pdf file of the text and signatories to date is available here.
This year (2006) the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is being asked to pass into law an Act that will ensure no minister may face censure for presiding over a religious ceremony marking a same-sex union.
This will freely encourage ministers to celebrate as holy in the name of the church what the Bible unambiguously calls sin, thus denying in the most public fashion the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and the clear teaching of the catholic faith. With such unions welcomed by the church, it will also by default remove any impediment to clergy entering into same-sex unions themselves, and living publicly in manses as practising homosexual couples.
Such an Act, if passed by the General Assembly, would be immensely damaging for the cause of the gospel in Scotland and potentially disastrous for the national church. It would mark out the Church of Scotland as the only major denomination in the UK to sanction such a radical departure in practice from the clear Scriptural pattern that recognises the sanctity of marriage only between one man and one woman. It would thus place itself outwith the fellowship of orthodox, credal Christianity worldwide. Further, such an unprecedented departure from both the Kirk's supreme standard, the Scriptures, and from its subordinate standard, the Westminster Confession of Faith would mean the denomination, as an entity with its institutional structures, had decisively acted to break fellowship and communion with the many parishes in Scotland who could not join what would, in effect, be a secession from the Kirk.
We urgently alert all commissioners to the 2006 General Assembly to the extreme gravity of the situation that this Act would create. We urge the Assembly to reject the deliverance of the Legal Questions Committee, ensuring instead that the Church will apply and assert in practice its clear doctrinal position on matters of marriage and human sexuality, by refusing the right to ministers to officiate at same-sex ceremonies of any kind. Only by doing so will the Assembly avoid plunging Scotland’s national church into a crisis of broken communion from which it may prove impossible to recover.
We further wish to publicly affirm our own continuing solidarity in fellowship with Christian churches worldwide who hold and maintain the historic faith, doctrine, and discipline of the one holy, catholic and apostolic church as once for all delivered to the saints in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.
20th February 2006
General Assembly to examine civil partnership implications
In May 2006, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland will be asked by the Kirk’s Legal Questions Committee to receive a report relating to civil partnerships.
Commissioners will hear that an obvious new pressure on the Church is the reality of civil partnerships being entered into and fully recognised in law. While such partnerships cannot be entered into by persons of the opposite sex, 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. To some extent, therefore, it is necessary to take a neutral view of the implications of civil partnerships but, inevitably, the issue is bound to attract controversy as inferences are likely to be drawn.
In fulfilling its obligations in relation to civil law, the report suggests that the Church cannot do other than recognise the legal reality. The Kirk does, of course, have the protection of its own distinctive practice, through the independent spiritual jurisdiction in general, but it is not exempt from civil law in matters like pension rights and other patrimonial issues. The Legal Questions Committee believes that in these civil law respects, the General Assembly does not need to take any particular measures but simply requires to recognise the implications of the new legislation, for instance in relation to pension entitlement and retirement housing provision.
A major question facing the committee was whether ministers and deacons may act in ways which would recognise the status conferred by the civil law event. 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. At present, ministers willingness to mark same sex committed relationships has to be packaged as an act of pastoral necessity to comply with the criteria that came from General Assembly sexuality debates in the 1990s.
The committee readily acknowledges that this is a controversial question but believes that it is important to recognise the existing freedom of pastoral conscience of ministers and deacons to guarantee that they do not face censure in the wake of providing this service. It is equally important to respect the rights of those who, in conscience, could not affirm same sex relationships, legally recognised by civil partnership. Consequently, the committee will ask the General Assembly to agree that a minister or deacon who conducts any service marking a civil partnership does not commit a disciplinary offence while also asking the assembly to agree that no minister or deacon will be obliged to conduct such a service against his or her conscience. The committee will also ask the assembly to agree that civil partners may ask another minister or deacon who is willing to conduct the service to do so if the parish minister has declined.
The committee’s report concludes by stating that it believes that the suggested agreement which it will place before the General Assembly is permissive in tone but will protect conscience on all sides.
6th February 2006
A Response from the Scottish Anglican Network
to the Primus’ letter on Civil Partnerships
We are grateful to the Primus and the College of Bishops for giving some information to the clergy of the Scottish Episcopal Church on how they will approach the issues raised by the Civil Partnerships Act. We continue to pray for wisdom for them as they make leadership decisions.
We are concerned, however, that this statement lacks clarity. Whilst it states that Civil Partnerships can neither be performed nor blessed officially in Scottish Episcopal Churches, by implication it leaves room for unauthorised blessings taking place, even after consultation with the bishops.
It also fails to give clear and positive teaching on the importance of marriage. The legislation is being widely championed as ‘same-sex marriage’, despite protestations to the contrary by politicians and church leaders that it is not. It might have been helpful to the Anglican Communion if the bishops had sought to affirm the biblical and traditional understandings of marriage.
Lastly, the bishops do not offer any explanation of how they intend to handle clergy who enter into Civil Partnerships. The Church has not changed its position on sexual practice outside of marriage - it is forbidden. The recently published ‘Guidelines for the Professional Conduct of the Clergy’ speak of ‘those who are not married, including those with a vocation to celibacy’. This permits relationships for church leaders which have never been sanctioned in the history of the church. As such, it appears to subvert and prejudge the much-vaunted ‘listening process'.
If a clergy person enters a Civil Partnership with a member of the same sex or irregular blessings of such Partnerships takes place in the Scottish Episcopal Church, with the tacit approval of any of the diocesan bishops, it will cause offence in many parts of the Anglican Communion. These events would also place further strain on our congregations as we continue to work for the transformation of communities and individuals.
Rev Canon Ian Ferguson (Trinity, Westhill, Aberdeen)
Rev Ian Hopkins (St Thomas’, Corstorphine, Edinburgh)
Rev David McCarthy (St Silas’, Glasgow)
Rev Canon Philip Noble (St Ninian’s, Glasgow)
Rev Mike Parker (General Secretary, EA Scotland)
Rev Dave Richards (St Paul’s & St George’s, Edinburgh)
Rev Malcolm Round (St Mungo’s, Balerno)
12th December 2005
Evangelical Fellowship in the Church in Wales
Response to the Bishops’ Statements on Homosexuality
and on Civil Partnerships (November 2005)
EFCW welcomes the Bishops’ statements and reaffirms its commitment to pray for Church leaders as they face present challenges.
However, we share a number of concerns about the statements, including the following:
We would have wanted to see Christian teaching on marriage affirmed, and continuity with the resolutions of the Lambeth Conference 1998 spelt out, as these unite us with the rest of the Anglican Communion. Keeping silent on these matters could give to some people the impression – mistakenly, we hope – that the Bishops have no positive Christian teaching to offer. 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. Despite the Bishops’ assertion that “the new legislation makes no change in the law in relation to marriage”, the legislation does indeed change British marriage law in a fundamental respect, by making an existing civil partnership an impediment to legal marriage. Required declaration of previous civil partnerships makes clear their exclusive nature and ethical significance. We are concerned that, in saying that they do not intend “to produce an authorized public liturgy”, the Bishops’ statement on civil partnerships leaves scope for public use of locally-produced liturgies for blessing such partnerships.
We regret that the Bishops have, in both statements, merely described the variety of points of view within our church. We would have been grateful for the Bishops giving a clearer statement of what is morally commendable among Christian people.
6.12.2005
8 December 2005
Scottish Primus on civil partnerships
To all serving clergy
Civil Partnerships
As you will be aware, on 5th December 2005, the Civil Partnership Act came into force. As a result, two people of the same sex will be able to acquire a new legal status through registering a civil partnership. This will have very significant implications for their rights and responsibilities in respect of taxation, nationality, immigration, heritance, liability for maintenance and child support, tenancies, employment and pension benefits.
The Bishops recognise that there is a variety of views in the Church on the subject of civil partnerships. They also realise that there may be members within your congregations, or colleagues in ministry who may be considering entering into such partnerships now, or at some time in the future. This may raise pastoral issues for you which you would wish to discuss with your Bishop. This note is to confirm that, in every diocese, the Bishop is happy to make himself available to discuss any such pastoral issues should they arise.
It should be noted that the Act does not allow Church buildings to be used for registering civil partnerships and there is no authorised liturgy in the Scottish Episcopal Church for the blessing of such partnerships.
+Bruce
The Most Rev Bruce Cameron
Primus and Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney
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