church of scotland member will not take communion

Councillor resigns from Kirk over gay minister

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A councillor has announced he is giving up his membership of the Church of Scotland due to his feelings over the appointment of its first openly gay minister.

Independent member John Hogg, who represents Heldon and Laich on Moray Council, said he was unable to support the Kirk because of the decision.

Last week the Rev Thomas Mackinnon of Kilmuir and Logie Easter Church, near Invergordon, resigned over the same issue. The move comes weeks after the Rev Scott Rennie, who is in a same-sex relationship, was inducted as minister of Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeen.

Mr Hogg joined the church as a child and has attended Alves Church as a member for around a decade. He said he now had no option but to give up his membership.

He said: “I find that I can no longer reconcile my communicant membership of the Church of Scotland with either the General Assembly’s support for Aberdeen Presbytery’s decision to sustain the call from Queen’s Cross church to the Rev Scott Rennie, or their fudging of the issue of ordaining openly practising homosexuals.

“I cannot be a part of a church which places secular liberalism above the authority of the Bible.”

Mr Hogg said his issue was not with his local parish, and he would continue to attend and support the church at Alves. He will not take communion, however, and said that will mean he is not technically a member.

He said it would not in any way affect his relationship with his local minister, the Rev Duncan Shaw, whom he informed by letter.

Mr Hogg said his decision was not about condemnation nor simply about making a point.

He said: “It’s about no longer being part of an organisation whose decision-making I currently disagree with. When that changes, which it will do, I’m sure, I may well ask to be reinstated as a member.”

Mr Rennie, 37, a divorced father-of-one, was minister at Brechin Cathedral, but was appointed to Queen’s Cross, and has been backed by the majority of the congregation.

Hundreds of ministers and thousands of Church of Scotland members signed an online petition opposing the move, however.

Some sections of the Kirk fear Mr Rennie’s appointment could cause the greatest divide since the Disruption of 1843 when around 450 ministers broke away over the issue of the Church of Scotland’s relationship with the state.