For most people, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland may not be something that sets the heather on fire. It is another (large) church meeting based in Edinburgh, and beneath the ceremony and the ritual there will be a lot of heart searching this year, more than most.
The Assembly has been in the habit of not deciding when it comes to controversial decisions and topics, but this year has been backed into a corner over a decidedly thorny problem.
A situation has arisen where an openly gay minister has been called to a charge. He didn’t start that way at the beginning of the selection process and so this has come something of a novelty (in the sense of being new, not ‘funny’).
The emphasis in recent years has been whether CofS clergy could be censured for blessing civil partnerships, and the decision was to leave things as they were (which was to leave matters to the minister’s conscience).
The only trouble with that position is that is relies on the get out clause at ordination where matters that are not central to faith can be left to an individual’s liberty of opinion. The snag is that this clause can be a door where many things can sneak in that certainly wouldn’t have in years past.
Now, I quickly recognise that faith is an evolving thing, it isn’t static, and yet there have to be things that are central to the faith, and this is the battleground for this discussion. It might get messy.
There are sure to be loud voices heard for each side, but this may be an occasion where the Assembly will show its true colours of grace and Christ-like love instead of the nastiness that the tabloids will certainly try to work up.