Kelvin Holdsworth, High-Ranking Scottish Priest, Comes Out
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 9:19 am. 0 comments
Things are heating up in the Church of Scotland. The Reverend Scott Rennie, openly gay, sparked protests after he was appointed minister at Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeen. 400 other ministers signed a petition of protest and the Archbishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, called on homosexuals to “repent and be changed.” Now the Very Reverend Kelvin Holdsworth, Rector and Provost of the Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin in Glasgow, has spoken publicly about being gay himself. In a lengthy interview with Scotland on Sunday Holdsworth responds to the archbishop, “I wish he wasn’t making the comments he makes and the only thing I can do is wish him a blessing of peace.”
Holdsworth says his fellow priests and his congregation have long known of his homosexuality, but have been supportive. And he says he’s not alone. “For all my time in the Church I have always known there were gay men, and more recently gay women, working in the priesthood. Anyone who knows the clergy of the Church, anyone who sits in the synod of the Church is sitting with gay people and has been doing so for a long time.”
The recent controversies compelled him to speak out to the public. Although he once opposed same-sex marriage, the forward-thinking clergyman now favors it even for two priests. “I don’t know how long it will take before clergy can have a same-sex marriage ceremony that is acknowledged by the whole church, but I do believe it is far more likely to happen in Scotland rather than England. I think in some ways Scotland is a more grown-up society than England.”
The Very Reverend Kelvin Holdsworth
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