Rev N M Ross
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has not featured as much in the news this year as in previous years – no doubt because the issue of greatest concern (whether or not to allow the ordination of homosexual ministers) is on hold until the Theological Commission on the subject reports to the 2013 Assembly. The Church of Scotland has already shown that it is in favour of ordaining those in homosexual partnerships, not only by allowing the Aberdeen homosexual minister, Scott Rennie, to continue in office even although he lives with a male partner, but also by permitting the induction, to pastoral charges, of ministers in same-sex relationships if they were ordained before 2009.
A former moderator and principal clerk of the Church of Scotland, Rev Dr Finlay Macdonald, has made light of the awful solemnity of this gross departure from biblical morality. He has written a novel about “the run-up to last year’s big General Assembly debate on the issue”. In a Scotsman report, on the day before the General Assembly met, he is quoted as saying, “I incline to the liberal side of the argument”. He believes that the Church “will decide to accept gay ministers”. In the Church, he added, there are different forms of worship and different ways of interpreting the Bible. “We do already accommodate differences. Is there not a way of accommodating this one?” He should ask another question, “What concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? (2 Cor 6:15).
This was a pertinent question for the General Assembly on its first day when it considered the proper use of church buildings. A tabled motion asked the Assembly to “instruct the [Legal Questions] Committee to bring to the General Assembly of 2013 legislation which ensures that acts of worship within all church property is Christian worship, offered exclusively to the one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit”. The background to the motion lay in the Aberdeen Presbytery, when Rev Scott Rennie was challenged about giving regular use of his church to local Hindus for their worship. In moving the motion, Rev Ian Watson asked, “Do I really have to stand in front of this Assembly and remind commissioners that, as Christians, we believe in the one God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that all other so-called gods are not gods?”
One would think that any Christian denomination, let alone the national Church in Scotland, would unhesitatingly support such a motion. In the event the General Assembly voted against it (289 against, 253 for). No doubt many commissioners were swayed by the apparently-pious pleas of the opposition – that the Church is to be “loving”, “welcoming”, “gracious” and “hospitable”. The minister who raised the matter at Presbytery level said at the time that there are ways in which Christians may be friendly to those of other faiths, but that “Christians believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. It is therefore inconceivable that Christians would knowingly allow or encourage, on their premises, other-faith worship that breaks the Commandments and which denies all that Christians hold dear and believe to be essential. They are, in effect, encouraging idolatry.”
As might be expected, Hindus take exception to such criticism. The South Asia Mail reports that Hindus have strongly objected to their deities being referred to as “false idols” in the General Assembly, and that the “President of Universal Society of Hinduism asked apology from Church of Scotland for this inappropriate language as these deities were highly revered in Hinduism”. He said of the USA, where he lives, “The landscape of our country is no longer solely dominated with the steeples and crosses of Christian churches, but is peppered by the arches and domes of temples, synagogues, gurdwaras and mosques”. When Scotland is similarly changing, there is all the more reason for our national Church to herald unequivocally the divine claim, “I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me” (Is 45:5), and to proclaim unashamedly the unique claim of God the Son: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (Jn 14:6).
With regard to Israel, this General Assembly, like previous ones, was more sympathetic to the Palestinians, especially those of Gaza, than to the state of Israel. “One commissioner,” says an Assembly report, “claimed that the full on-line report on Gaza does not give the Israeli side of the argument, and implies that the Israeli Government is not a caring Government. All he asked for in his amendment was that Israel’s narrative be presented. In his response, the Convener said there could never be a truly balanced view between Israel and Palestine and he hoped the Assembly would reject the amendment, which they did overwhelmingly.” Withholding one side of the argument is neither Christian nor just.
The Assembly also dealt with the issue of “Sunday sporting events” – not upholding the sanctity of the Lord’s Day but because such events impede access to churches. The Assembly’s decision was simply to urge congregations to continue dialogue with local authorities about “start times of Sunday football matches, and other Sunday sporting events”. One commissioner did succeed in getting the Assembly to accept, as an addendum, an “affirmation of the importance of regular worship for the spiritual growth and equipping of Christians”. However, the final decision included the deplorable statement “that Church people were by no means kill-joys, and indeed many Church members happily participate on Sundays in supporting their club, or joining a marathon, half-marathon, charity fun-run or other event”. But what else can be expected when, on the Sabbath of the Assembly, the Church of Scotland itself held an event, Heart and Soul (similar to last year’s Roll Away the Stone event) in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh. It was intended to showcase the Church and attract people to it, but the fare given to the thousands of people who attended included music by several bands, comedy, performing clowns, a pipe band, and creative arts workshops.
Such methods will not bring the blessing of God upon any Church, but His displeasure. How then can the visible Church in its various branches reverse the decline in numbers? Certainly not by adopting the ways of the world. As surely as God was to increase the “house of Israel . . . with men like a flock” (Ezek 36:37), so He will increase His spiritual Israel, His Church. But how? Verses 25-27 show that there can only be spiritual prosperity and growth through the outpouring of His Holy Spirit. While we are to proceed apace with the primary work of preaching the gospel and teaching the truth, we must seek to fulfil the condition of the promise: “Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock” (Ezek 36:37).