Global Anglican church leaders condemn Scotland for allowing same-sex weddings

Global Anglican church leaders may issue sanctions against the Scottish Episcopal Church for allowing same-sex marriages.

In June, the church voted to allow gay couples to have church weddings but leaders of the global Anglican Communion are not happy.

During a five day Primates’ Meeting in Canterbury, the leaders will hand down ‘consequences’ to the rogue church.

These include a bar on membership of representational bodies and an exclusion from decisions on policy.

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Scottish Episcopal Church sign

Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, the secretary general of the Anglican communion said at the time of the initial decision: ‘There are differing views about same-sex marriage within the Anglican communion, but this puts the Scottish Episcopal church at odds with the majority stance that marriage is the lifelong union of a man and a woman.

‘This is a departure from the faith and teaching upheld by the overwhelming majority of Anglican provinces on the doctrine of marriage,’ he added.

‘I’m a gay priest and we march in Pride every year’

Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth is a gay priest from St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow. He marches every year in Glasgow Pride.

He said: ‘St Mary’s was one of the first places to campaign for same-sex marriages in the church in Scotland.’

But on the decision to sanction the Scottish Episcopal Church, he believes it would be unfortunate.

He told Gay Star News: ‘The recent wedding ceremonies have been joyful and filled with the grace of God.

‘Indeed, the way in which same-sex couples have been enabled to get married in Scottish Episcopal Churches is a model for the whole communion, not something that should lead to sanctions,’ he said.

He believes it’s impossible to predict what the outcome of the Primates’ Meeting will be. It’s ‘not a disciplinary body,’ rather an opportunity for Primates to listen to one another.

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Scottish Episcopal Church ceremony

After the decision in July, he also told Gay Star News: ‘It is hugely exciting to open up wedding services to all couples who want to get married.

‘I want to live in a world where same-sex couples can feel safe walking down the street hand-in-hand. And in which they can feel joy walking hand-in-hand down the aisle of a church too,’ he also said.

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