Tuesday: Useful comment article by Colette Douglas Home in today’s Herald, on the Roman Catholic Church’s position on #equalmarriage: http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/columnists/core-message-of-christianity-is-one-of-love-and-forbearance.18704767

Includes good key quotes from Sunday’s sermon and this:

[Kelvin Holdsworth] welcomed gay Christians to the service and discovered, not surprisingly, that his congregation had increased.

A senior Catholic source reportedly accused him of “incendiary and uncharitable language” when he issued his invitation last Friday. Mr Holdsworth said: “I think people get weary of hearing a negative message from church people. What they want to hear is positive – about changing the world for the better, about justice, about love.” Amen to that.

There’s a new article in the Herald newspaper today reporting on yesterday’s sermon and service at St Mary’s. It is prominently placed, with a nice big pic of me in the pulpit on the front page. I’d probably have preferred a different headline (they are never written by the reporters themselves) but the article is a good report of the service here at St Mary’s yesterday. 

You can find the article here:http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/news/home-news/gay-marriage-war-of-words-in-churches.18684223

There’s some quoting from yesterday’s sermon

I’m quoted as saying thus:

“The thing I found amazing is how busy a church can be on a Sunday morning simply by saying that everybody is welcome. That’s a position that churches share across the city but somehow, by saying that this is a place where everybody is welcome, that is the message that will draw people in. Perhaps as churches we have forgotten how to say that.”

Asked about the messages on same-sex marriage from the Catholic hierarchy, he said: “I think people get weary of hearing a negative message from church people. What they want to hear is positive – about changing the world for the better, about justice, about love.”

And folk who were in the congregation are quoted thus:

Jim Whannel and Colin Johnston, members of an Episcopal church in Paisley, said: “It’s a very sad day for Christianity because of what is happening in other churches.”

A lesbian Christian couple, Ruth and Jaye Richards-Hill, also backed Mr Holdsworth’s open invitation. Mrs Richards-Hill said: “Somebody needs to stand up and create a balance in the opinion, and I think that worked.”

“A spokesman for the [Roman] Catholic Church declined to respond to Mr Holdsworth’s latest comments.”