Letter: Kirk warning

Councillor John Stewart, leader of Aberdeen City Council, is right to warn the Kirk that a decision to exclude gay clergy would undermine its position as the national church.

The law of the land makes discrimination against gays in employment illegal and recent surveys show this is supported by well over 90 per cent of the population.

Other mainline Protestant churches such as those in North America, Scandinavia, Germany and Holland accept gay clergy in sexually active monogamous relationships.

The disastrous 19th century schism in the Kirk was driven by the evangelical wing's insistence on the absolute right of a congregation to choose its own minister.

It would be deeply ironic if the successors of these Victorian dissenters caused another split by denying that right on the grounds of sexual orientation.

REV DR JOHN CAMERON

Howard Place

St Andrews