• Church and Civil Partnerships

  20/05/2013

  As I awoke in a bleary haze this morning, (today is a post-Ceilidh morning) I heard someone one the radio talking about how the Church of Scotland might be the first church to allow people in Civil Partnerships to serve as ordained clergy.

  It won’t of course. The Scottish Episcopal Church already has plenty of people in Civil Partnerships who serve as ordained clergy. Unlike in England, they don’t have to pretend that they are living lives of celibate friendship either.

  There’s going to be lots of news about LGBT relationships this week, with the bill coming to parliament in Westminster (does not affect Scotland) and the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland trying to get its knickers out of a twist about gay ministers in Edinburgh.

  Not all the news is going to be accurate either.

Previous Posts

• Poem for Advent

  06/12/2005

  Here is a little poem to get us to tomorrow. It is by Rowan Williams.Advent CalendarHe will come like last leaf’s fall.One night when the November windhas flayed the trees to bone, and earthwakes choking on the mould,the soft shroud’s folding.He will come like frost.One morning when the shrinking earthopens on mist, to find itselfarrested…

• Hell

  05/12/2005

  I greatly enjoyed the story about hell which was reported in the media over the weekend. It is all to do with the research of Eric Stoddart whom I knew in Scottish Churches Open College and who is now working in my old college, St Mary’s, St Andrews. He has had a research interest for…

• Civil Partnerships

  05/12/2005

  The Civil Partnerships legislation was enacted today. It is good to see it become operational at last. I gather that one partnership has already been registered, the cooling off period for one couple being waived, as one of the partners was in a hospice and unlikely to live to the end of the month.There are…

• Sermon – 4 December 2005

  04/12/2005

  I often concentrate on John the Baptist at this time of the year – we get him twice in Advent and then return to him after Christmas. Often I say, listen, what a surprising voice this is. The one who witnessed to the Lord was a wild and lonely figure raging over the hills and…