Statement about the coming General Assembly of 2009

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland meeting in May 2009 will hear an appeal against the decision of the Presbytery of Aberdeen to induct into a charge a minister who has openly declared himself to be living in a homosexual relationship. 

If the Assembly votes to support the Presbytery of Aberdeen, it will publicly declare such behaviour as acceptable and honourable for a leader in Christ’s church. This would mark a historic departure for our church from the teaching of the catholic Christian faith, and a radical deviation from the clear Scriptural pattern that recognises the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman as the only proper place for sexual intimacy—a pattern which our church has hitherto always publicly affirmed.

To now declare explicitly an active homosexual lifestyle as holy, something the Bible unambiguously calls sin, denies in the most public fashion the authority of the church’s only Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. Our church would thus position itself outwith the fellowship of orthodox, credal Christianity worldwide.

Such a decision, if made by the General Assembly, would be immensely damaging for the cause of Christ in Scotland and disastrous for the national church. As an unprecedented departure from both the Kirk’s supreme standard, the Scriptures, and its subordinate standard, the Westminster Confession of Faith, by its highest court, this would inevitably force a crisis of communion. The majority of congregations of the Church of Scotland have no wish so to depart from orthodox Christian faith and practice, nor to be in fellowship with those who would so abandon the true Church of Jesus Christ.

We urgently alert all commissioners to the 2009 General Assembly to the extreme gravity of the situation. We urge the Assembly to support the position of those who stood to defend Christian orthodoxy in Aberdeen Presbytery, and ensure instead that the Church will apply and assert in practice its clear doctrinal position on all matters of marriage and human sexuality, by refusing to condone homosexual practice in general, and among its leaders in particular. We further urge all commissioners to support the Overture from the Presbytery of Lochcarron and Skye, that our General Assembly may make its will known clearly and decisively on this issue for the future.

We stand thus to publicly affirm our love, honour and deep respect for all our Christian brothers and sisters who wrestle painfully with homosexual temptation but fight faithfully to live lives of purity, following Christ Jesus as his true disciples. We assure them of all pastoral support, care and mutual encouragement as they, along with us, ‘strive…for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.’ (Hebrews 12:14)

We further wish to affirm our 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, once for all delivered to the saints in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

Support for this Statement

Prior to the General Assembly debate, this statement received 12555 confirmed entries, some of which contained multiple names, so the total number of individuals exceeds this by at least 1000.

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Of these, well over 5000 were from members of the Church of Scotland. These included:

• 421 Ministers
  • 272 of these were currently serving as Parish ministers.
  • The official figure given by the Ministries Council in the General Assembly 2009 Book is that there are currently 964 ministers in parishes in Scotland, thus over 28% of these signed this statement. 
  • In addition, 47 others in posts such as assistants, associate ministers and chaplains, and 102 retired ministers gave their support.
• Over 1200 elders and 33 whole Kirk Sessions supported the statement.

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There were 2777 signatures from members of other Scottish Churches (including 229 ministers), and a further 2464 (including 482 ministers) from members of other UK Churches beyond Scotland.

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There were 1996 signatures from Christians right across the world, showing that this is an issue that strikes at the heart of the worldwide, orthodox faith of the Christian church. Signatories included 520 ministers from most major denominations, many them serving in other presbyterian churches in Australia, America and Africa which have historic links with the Church of Scotland.

Some comments on the integrity of the petition

Being an online petition, with self-administered entries, inaccuracies were bound to occur. Some people put themselves in the wrong category, and a few entries were duplicated because people didn’t see their name where expected, and so signed up again with a different email address. However, the list was combed over daily by a respected Academic Dean of a major college, and all such duplicates which were drawn to our attention were deleted. Overall we were assured that she found the list to be well over 99% accurate, even before these corrections were made.

This was despite repeated attempts from some quarters to try to sabotage and discredit the list by maliciously entering false (mostly obscene) names, requiring us to monitor the petition constantly and remove them. On one occasion only, to our knowledge, someone’s name was added maliciously without the person’s knowledge or consent, and as soon as we were contacted it was removed.

We were also alerted to the fact that some websites and chatrooms well known for their strident secularist and vehemently anti-Christian views were urging their users to do this, which in itself gives an interesting insight into the true nature of this debate. It would have been extremely discouraging to have supporting our stand those devoted to the extermination of the Christian faith.