The current and former Moderators of the General Assembly. Picture by Derek Fett

Saturday May 16

general assembly 2015: saturday

Church approves Overture on ministers in same-sex relationships.

£175,000 extra for CrossReach towards Living Wage for staff.

New Moderator: "In the church we are all one family."

The outgoing Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Very Rev John Chalmers, is to call for ‘harmony’ in the church after the act allowing ministers in same sex civil partnerships was agreed.

The overture was passed today by 309 votes to 182, after a debate lasting about two hours.

It means that the Church still formally holds to its traditional view that sexual activity should take place only within marriage between a man and a woman; but that churches that wish to depart from that and call a gay minister may do so.

At a speech tonight, Mr Chalmers is expected to say: “Of course we need the freedom across the Church to shape the life and worship of the Church according to local needs and local gifts… but we cannot go on suffering the pain of internal attacks which are designed to undermine the work or the place of others. It’s time to play for the team.

“And let me be very clear here – I am not speaking to one side or another of the theological spectrum. I am speaking to both ends and middle. It is time to stop calling each other names, time to shun the idea that we should define ourselves by our differences and instead define ourselves by what we hold in common.”

Earlier, making a final appeal for the Assembly to turn back from the Overture, the Rev Gordon Kennedy, who served on the Theological Commission on Same Sex Relationships and the Ministry which reported in 2013, said: “There is simply no Biblical or theological foundation for the affirmation at the heart of this overture.”

The Rev Andrew Moore said: “We say ‘no’ to our children not out of spite, but out of our love. Our heavenly father says no, never in spite of love but because of his love.”

Speaking for the overture, the Rev Julia Wiley said: “When will we stop saying that ‘your sin is greater than mine so God cannot use you’?”

The Rev Willem Bezuidenhout said: “The debate is not whether we condone or approve of same sex relationships. We are voting on the right of God to call a minister he chose to call. To a congregation to make their own personal choice. Let us vote in the light of the sovereign God who may choose whoever he will, gay or straight.”

The Rev Alan Hamilton, convener of the Legal Questions Committee which drew up the overture, said that both ‘traditionalist’ and ‘revisionist’ members of the church could vote for it, ‘knowing you are offering a chance to heal to the whole of this hurting church’.

“If the Overture falls, will the disagreement among us evaporate? If it’s voted down today, will there suddenly appear a single approach with which everyone is happy?”

He added: “Let us not forget that no one side has a monopoly on hurt and anguish and pain.”

Afterwards, the co-ordinator of the Principal Clerk’s office, the Very Rev David Arnott, said: “The General Assembly decided today to allow individual Kirk Sessions the possibility of allowing a Nominating Committee to consider an application from a minister living in a civil partnership.

“During a vacancy a Kirk Session may, but only if it so wishes, and after due deliberation, agree to a Nominating Committee accepting an application from such a minister. No Kirk Session may be coerced into doing so against its own wishes. This decision was in line with a majority of presbyteries who voted in favour of such a move.”

Today’s vote was the final stage in a process that began in 2009 when there was a protest against the call of the Rev Scott Rennie, a minister in a civil partnership, to Queen’s Park Church in Aberdeen. The decision has been arrived at via a Special Commission which reported in 2011, a Theological Commission which reported in 2013, and an Overture drawn up by the Legal Questions Committee which was passed by last year’s General Assembly and subsequently by a majority of Presbyteries.

However, it is not the last time this year’s Assembly will debate same-sex relationships. On Thursday, it will be asked to consider whether to extend the legislation to include ministers in same-sex marriages.

Also today, the Council of Assembly revealed plans to cut the amount of money the central church asks for from congregations next year by £425,000; and to increase the amount given to presbyteries by £500,000. Convener, the Rev Grant Barclay, said: “This… means Presbyteries now have in total £2.5M to resource innovative mission projects, to develop Presbytery-wide initiatives and also to support congregations facing specific challenges, all as they know best in their local situations.”

CrossReach, the Social Care Arm of the Church, is to be given an extra £175,000 to help move towards its aim of paying the living wage to its staff.

In the morning's opening speeches, Mr Chalmers said it had been acknowledged to him 'time and time again' during his Moderatorial year that 'the feet would be cut from under Scotland' if the church ceased its work in communities with the disadvantaged. "There is no government or national agency that could fill the vacancy or make up the deficit that would be left in our common life."

He went on: "The church doesn't enjoy a privileged place in the public square. She earns her place in the public square and there is plenty of room in that public square for other groups to earn their place by serving others."

He said he prayed every day that 'we shun the idea that it's our church... the idea that we should all be same... that we should define ourselves by our differences, when we hold in common a baptism into Christ, a dependence on God's grace and a belonging to Christ's church'.

"We are heirs of a church that hasn't ever got it all right. Sometimes weak, sometimes impetuous, sometimes insightful, sometimes visionary, sometimes full of hope, sometimes despondent and in need of a fresh start. But she is still Christ's church, so the gates of hell cannot prevail against her."

His successor, the Rt Rev Dr Angus Morrison, thanked the Assembly for the 'extraordinary honour and privilege' and for its prayers and support after he had to pull out of the role for health reasons last year. "I have been overwhelmed by the many expressions of support and assurances of prayer that have come from every quarter of the church. I have never felt more aware in my life of the fact that in the church we are one family."

The Lord High Commissioner, Baron Hope of Craighead, spoke of his father, whose life was saved in the trenches of WW1 when a bullet hit his revolver. "He wrote 'Surely God is good to preserve me in this manner'."

Baron Hope added: "I feel sure that as has been your time honoured custom, your deliberations will be tackled throughout with thoughtfulness and courtesy."

When business got underway, the Rev Dr Derek Browning, convener of the Assembly Arrangements Committee, told the Assembly that the church was ‘at one of those junctions when we need to decide what kind of church we want to be’. He was introducing the early work of a group set up to consider the future purpose of the General Assembly, which is currently consulting and will report to next year.

The first vote of the week was on a proposal to abolish long service certificates for Elders, which was defeated.

Elaine Duncan, chief executive of the Scottish Bible Society, spoke of the work of the Society in Nepal, the Honduras, and among refugees from the fighting in Syria and Iraq. Of the latter, she said partners on the ground were reporting that ‘they had never known such a hunger for scriptures as there is in those two countries’.

She added that last year over 750,000 copies of the Society’s Penny Gospel were ordered – enough for a third of the homes in Scotland. “The Lord is at work,” she said.