On Monday 23 May 2011, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has the unenviable task of considering the report it commissioned two years ago from its Special Commission on Same-Sex Relationships and the Ministry. Unenviable because over the two years there has been a great deal of consultation with its Presbyteries and Kirk Sessions which has produced a broad range of views rather than a conclusive result.
Two possible ways forward are presented to General Assembly for debate.
Either there is an indefinite moratorium on the acceptance for training and ordination of persons in a same-sex relationship - but further study is carried out.
Or to lift the moratorium with a Theological Report to be brought to the General Assembly in 2013. This will have considered whether persons who have entered into a civil partnership and have made life-long commitments in a Church ceremony, should be eligible for admission for training, ordination and induction as ministers of Word and Sacrament or deacons. No member of Presbytery will be required to take part in such ordination or induction against his or her conscience.
In its Report the Special Commission views homophobia as sinful - but that does not include, in the concept of homophobia, both the bona fide belief that homosexual practice is contrary to God’s will and the responsible statement of that belief in preaching or writing.
The Special Commission believes the Church needs to reach out to people regardless of their sexual orientation and practice. It recognises the heavy burden which a homosexual orientation continues to place on some who find it difficult or impossible to reconcile their orientation with their understanding of God’s purposes as revealed in the Bible.
It states that people who are homosexual by orientation are not barred by their orientation from membership of the Church or from taking up leadership roles in the Church, including the ministry of Word and Sacrament, the diaconate and eldership.
The Special Commission wants to establish a Theological Commission of seven persons representative of the breadth of the Church’s theological understanding, with the task of addressing the theological issues raised in the course of the Special Commission’s work.
The Special Commission wants to instruct all Courts, Councils and Committees of the Church not to make decisions in relation to contentious matters of same-sex relationships, accept for training, allow to transfer from another denomination, ordain or induct any person in a same-sex relationship until 31 May 2013.
Subject to this moratorium, maintain the unlawfulness of discrimination in the Church on the grounds of sexual orientation in terms of the Act anent Discrimination (Act V 2007); allow the induction into pastoral charges of ministers and deacons ordained before May 2009 who are in a same-sex relationship; and instruct all Courts, Councils and Committees of the Church not to issue press statements or otherwise talk to the media in relation to contentious matters of human sexuality, in respect to Ordination and Induction to the Ministry of the Church of Scotland.
But perhaps most telling of all is the Report’s reference to something the Archbishop of Canterbury said to the General Synod of the Church of England in November 2010. Rowan Williams called for the loyalty of heart to heart in the Christian community to enable collaboration in Gospel work. He advocated an acknowledgement that opinions may vary even when doctrines are shared. He suggested that it was becoming more urgent that there be some thoughtful engagement that will help us understand how people who read the same Bible and share the same baptism can come to strongly diverse conclusions.
The Special Commission thinks that this call for theological engagement, not to entrench adopted positions, but to address the diversity of view within a denomination, has resonance for the Church of Scotland in relation to the work that lies ahead.