Dark Clouds
The induction of Scott Rennie proved to be a spark that lit a few fires. Whether these fires will spread further or will remain localised and die out remains to be seen. To keep with the fire-related analogy, the huffing and puffing started in earnest almost as soon as the Presbytery of Aberdeen first sustained the call to Queen’s Cross.
It opened wide a door of opportunity for the more hard line evangelicals, many of whom are not even members of the Kirk, to engage in a veritable feast of judgement and condemnation. And how some of them have loved it! It was like cream to a starving kitten. It gave a wonderful excuse to point out the speck in the Kirk’s eye, without having to consider the planks sticking out of their own eyes.
Of course, some good and devout people were and are genuinely concerned and uncomfortable about the possibility of a gay minister and I would not in any way wish to criticise them or their theological position. We all have to do what we believe to be right.
But I do criticise those who have used this opportunity to let fly with a flurry of sanctimonious and self-righteous claptrap that would have embarrassed the Scribes and the Pharisees. What kind of Christian witness is that to the world? Some people seem to believe that because they are Christians, they can do and say what they like, without even having to take account of the normal rules of courtesy and politeness.
The Free Church of Scotland – hardly a detached or objective observer – seems to have taken a particular satisfaction in pointing the finger. The Free Church has been a carping, ungenerous and sometimes ungracious critic of the Kirk for the best part of two centuries. Indeed opposition to the Church of Scotland is the Free Kirk’s basic raison d’être. Given that a small number of congregations seemed likely to leave the Church of Scotland, the Moderator of the Free Church on the eve of the 2013 General Assembly invited ministers and members of the Church of Scotland who wished to leave to come and join the Free Kirk’s own depleted and divided ranks. Whether this was an act of kindness or opportunism, others must judge.
Some ministers and congregations in the Church of Scotland were already making noises. Suddenly the whole issue seemed to grow legs. For some of the more hard-line traditionalists, it seemed as though the Kirk, by sustaining Scott Rennie’s call, had turned its back entirely on every single word of Scripture and was therefore in a crisis situation, sinking into a veritable morass of apostasy and immorality.
The more hot headed wanted to take immediate action and some did. More moderate counsel in other places suggested that a “wait and see” attitude should be adopted. Some even now are undecided and feel themselves pulled in different directions. There are now a confusing number of evangelical associations and pressure groups representing a wide cross section of views.
The first real significant break came with the congregation of St George’s Tron in Glasgow deciding in 2012 to leave the Church of Scotland. There was no doubt that this was a major blow and a great loss as well as a disappointment to many. Older people remember the remarkable ministries that had been offered in that iconic city centre building, including those of Tom Alan, Eric Alexander and Sinclair Ferguson.
These were men who were not uncritical of the Church of Scotland at various times, but their criticism was always balanced and came very much from within. St George’s Tron was a flagship of the great evangelical tradition within the Church of Scotland. It was a congregation and a witness in central Glasgow of which the Kirk could be justly proud, in the best sense. Even ministers and elders, who would not have described themselves as “card-carrying evangelicals” held St George’s Tron and its ministry in great respect. And in recent years the congregation has given sacrificially towards a major renovation and modernisation of the building.
Their last minister adopted a hard line attitude. In 2012, the minister and the vast majority of the Tron congregation left the Church of Scotland. Critics at the time said that, under the current ministry, it had actually left the Church of Scotland some years previously. But, things are seldom as simple as they seem.
A congregation is not an incorporated body; it is simply a collection of individuals who, in law, are represented by their office-bearers as trustees who accept personal liability. A congregation cannot legally secede from the Church of Scotland, lock, stock and barrel. Nor can a seceding congregation normally claim ownership of the church building even if the title is held by local trustees. (I am aware that I am in danger here of over-simplification.)
Events during the last few months of 2012 were a complete public relations disaster for everyone involved in the Tron debacle. No one came out of it well, although everyone wanted to claim the moral high ground. It was one of these situations in which everybody involved – the congregation, the minister, the Presbytery of Glasgow, the people of Glasgow and the Church of Scotland – lost out.
If the truth be told, human pride on both sides has played a major part and continues to do so. The difficulty in attempting to give any kind of objective assessment is that different people whose word I would normally accept without hesitation give such diametrically opposite and polarised accounts. At any rate, feelings ran very high.
The Presbytery of Glasgow and the Ministries Council wished the tradition of a conservative evangelical ministry and associated outreach to continue, based in St George’s Tron Church. Given that the vast majority of the existing gathered congregation would no longer be members of the Church of Scotland, the ambition to bring together a new gathered congregation still seems (to me) to be more than a touch unrealistic.
The end result was that in late 2012 the breakaway congregation left the iconic building, on which they had sacrificially spent hundreds of thousands of pounds, to the sound of the hymn “The Son of God goes forth to war”. A sign was put up outside “The living church has left the building.” Olive branches were, it seems, in very short supply. In fairness, neither the Presbytery of Glasgow nor the Kirk spokesmen in Edinburgh seemed to be in the mood to mend fences either.
The Church of Scotland has brought in a transition minister based in the empty Tron building. Few would envy him his job. The words “poison” and “chalice” come to mind.
In general, the media favoured the breakaway congregation in their reporting. This congregation had lost their building but now had the great advantage of being seen as brave victims and principled martyrs who were being turned out on to the street by a harsh, triumphalist and compromised Church of Scotland. The media did generally seem to overlook the fact that the congregation had themselves voted almost unanimously to leave. However, some of the powers that be in the Church of Scotland did not help themselves by giving an impression that the Kirk was not unduly worried at the prospect of losing so many committed and contributing members. It was a case of “...business as usual”, according to the Principal Clerk of the General Assembly. Were these words a sign of wilful complacency or a genuine attempt to reassure?
It had been known for some time that Gilcomston South Church in Aberdeen (the church in which Carole and I were married in 1974) also intended to leave. I suspect everybody learned some lessons from the Tron disaster. Gilcomston South held detailed and courteous discussions with Aberdeen Presbytery and, at least in the meantime, the recently formed independent congregation of Gilcomston Church will lease their Union Street building (on which they too have spent large amounts of money) from the Church of Scotland.
As a result of the 2013 Assembly, another prominent evangelical church, Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh has stated its intention to leave the Church of Scotland by 2015. Similar statements have come from St Catherine’s Argyle and New Restalrig congregations in Edinburgh. Large numbers of the congregation have meanwhile left Larbert Old and Dundee: Logie and St John’s Cross (to form a Grace Church in both cases) and also St James Broughty Ferry (to form Brought Ferry Presbyterian Church).
There are and will, no doubt, be others.