Latest News and Blog Articles

NEWS  19th May "General Assembly 2018 Daily Notes - Saturday" - ( item  below )

NEWS  9th May "Information and Prayer Points for the Forthcoming 2018 General Assembly" - ( item  below )

BLOG  9th April "Diverse Gender Identities And Pastoral Care - Where The Recent Church of Scotland Booklet Needs To Be Challenged - 1) "In The Beginning"  - ( article below )

BLOG  9th April "Transgender - Some Background Information on the Topic Before Exploring Further" - ( article below )

BLOG  19th March "Diverse Gender Identities And Pastoral Care" - ( article below )

To see the full list, visit the news page or blog page. 

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General Assembly 2018 Daily Notes - Saturday

This week we expected much emphasis on women in Ministry as this is the 50th Anniversary of General Assembly’s decision to permit women to be ordained to Word and Sacrament.  It was therefore not surprising that the Rt Rev Susan Brown was elected Moderator today, and a procession up the Mound has been arranged for later in the week.

It was good to hear Elaine Duncan give an excellent Bible Society report again, telling the Assembly about one million Bibles distributed in Cuba over the last five years, and of an elderly Malawian Pastor so excited to get a complete Bible to replace the old tattered one that started late in Genesis and finished somewhere in 1 Corinthians.

A major part of the Legal Questions Committee report was the new Discipline Overture which replaces four previous Acts.  It’s a big piece of work which will require Presbyteries’ approval before returning again next year; though quite technical, this Overture deals with Ministries and congregational Office-bearers so will be important to get right.

An additional motion was included for the debate on conducting Same-Sex Marriages – interestingly this took a minimalist line of seeking to get the Assembly to instruct the preparation of legislation for the 2020 Assembly which would only permit individuals on application to conduct Same-Sex Marriages and to seek to provide protections for those who would refuse to take part.  An early attempt to depart from the matter was easily dismissed, but an early amendment from Peter White was approved which insisted that an Act be brought only if the Legal Questions Committee felt that the legal safeguards were sufficient.

The motion as amended was then debated with calm, clear contributions from both sides. Concerns were expressed that the consequences of bringing forward such legislation would be further pressure on congregations and Presbyteries to depart from the historical and orthodox Church of Scotland position on marriage and, inevitably a further challenge to the peace and unity of the church at all levels. The point was made that the theological case for same-sex marriage has yet to be made but suggestions that this should precede drafting of legislation were rejected. A number of Commissioners were concerned about the legal position that Ministers or others refusing to take part in such ceremonies would find themselves in, despite the previously mentioned amendment. In the end, the motion (as amended) was approved by 345 to 170.

The Council of Assembly had the task of taking up the end of a warm afternoon – reiterating the need for the Church nationally to pray and confirming that there will be another National Day of Prayer later this year. Along with this was a recognition that we are called to pray week by week as we “do less with fewer resources”. The convener ended her report by drawing attention to serious financial matters: a rising national deficit and falling income from congregations giving a warning for harder times ahead.  Other matters in their report will follow on Monday.

Information and Prayer Points for the Forthcoming General Assembly

A list of the key points which will be discussed at the General Assembly from 19th to 25th May has been compiled based on the Reports in the Blue Book. Click here to go to the article.

Please pray for those who will be Commissioners at this year's Assembly as they are asked to discuss and debate issues across the full breadth of the Church's activities.

Particular points for prayer include:

• The work carried out and reported on by the Council of Assembly regarding the Strategy for the Church for the next 10 years "Worshipping God, Inspiring Faith, Connecting People" and the ongoing acknowledgement that prayer is vital, resulting in a recommendation to Assembly that further National Days of Prayer be held
• The work reported on by the Panel on Review and Reform on how Ministry might be practised across the country - that the options being considered might allow and encourage the faithful preaching of the Word of God and real pastoral care for those being ministered to
• The reports from Legal Questions Committee and the Theological Forum which again touch on the issue of Same-sex Marriage; that the legal opinion given might be studied carefully and precipitate action avoided, given the unchanging need to weigh any action up against scripture  and recognising the real concerns of those within the Church who see this as the wrong direction to be taking and who might find themselves under threat of legal action if they decide they will not be party to any further liberalisation of the Church's position.
  That the rightful concern for reconciliation and the ongoing work on this might not be pursued without consideration and regard for the  consequences on the basis of the beliefs and doctrines of the Church
• The Overture which is to be brought seeking to reassess the importance and place of the Westminster Confession within the Church; that energies, time and effort may not be sucked in to supporting work on this rather than missional ministry and reaching out to the people in communities throughout Scotland with the Gospel of Christ
• That every Commissioner might approach Assembly in a spirit of prayerful listening for God's voice speaking to them and then through them into the proceedings

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Diverse Gender Identities and Pastoral Care - where the recent Church of Scotland booklet needs to be challenged - 1) 'In the Beginning'

In a previous blog article, we indicated that our Church’s recent booklet Diverse Gender Identities and Pastoral Care should certainly help many of our elders (and members) to become aware of some of the basic issues experienced by the small percentage of the population who suffer from gender dysphoria, or who self-identify as gender-non-conforming people.

However, we also highlighted the fact that the booklet is insufficient on its own. This is the case, not least because a significant number of statements are made – some of them by those who have studied theology formally – that need to be challenged in terms of what the Bible itself teaches and what orthodox theology has taught across denominations and across the world for the past two millennia. In a further series of articles, we would hope to highlight some of our concerns. We start today ‘in the beginning’ with some of the teaching of Genesis 1 that is challenged in this booklet.

What Genesis 1:27 teaches.

Read more: Diverse Gender Identities and Pastoral Care - where the recent Church of Scotland booklet needs to...

Transgender - some background information on the topic before exploring further

One of the more significant concerns that CFS has with the recent booklet, Diverse Gender Identities and Pastoral Care, produced by the Mission & Discipleship Council of the Church of Scotland, is that, in three of the stories related there, specific, positive reference is made to queer theology without any definition or analysis of that term being given, or any alternative assessment being made of it, and, in particular, how it relates to orthodox Christian teaching.

It is clear that if this booklet is to be discussed by Kirk Sessions they will need to be informed as to what queer theology is, where it came from and what its intentions are. Queer theology takes its name from queer theory which was first developed in the early 1990s.

In a brief (2-minute) video clip which can be found on the Forum of Christian Leaders (FOCL) European Leadership Forum website, Dr Peter Saunders, CEO of Christian Medical Fellowship, helps us to understand in lay language what lies at the very heart of queer theory. The website contains other helpful material on this and related issues:

• What are the cultural roots of the transgender movement? - 3-minute video
• What is Queer Theory? - 2-minute video
• What is the Transgender Agenda? - 17-minute video talk (PDF outline also available)
• How should Christians respond to the Transgender Agenda? - 18-minute video talk (PDF outline also available)

We hope that these resources will help inform Christians of the background to the subject of transgender and bring some helpful clarity to a complex area as we move on to give further responses.

Diverse Gender Identities and Pastoral Care.

Some of you may be aware of a recently published booklet from the Church of Scotland, entitled Diverse Gender Identities and Pastoral Care. For information on how to obtain copies and how to download the booklet free of charge see https://www.resourcingmission.org.uk/shop/diverse-gender-identities-and-pastoral-care

As the booklet explains in its opening page, it is the official response of the Mission and Discipleship Council of the Church of Scotland, ‘working with the Church and Society Council and others where appropriate,’ to a deliverance proposed from the floor of the General Assembly of 2016 and approved by that Assembly. The deliverance instructed the above Councils to ‘promote congregational learning and awareness of the issues that transgender and gender-non-conforming people experience in order to better facilitate pastoral care to and the inclusion of transgender and gender non-conforming people at a local level.’ 

Read more: Diverse Gender Identities and Pastoral Care.

CFS detailed response to the Report from the Theological Forum presented to the 2017 General Assembly

Having given time for thought and prayer, Covenant Fellowship Scotland has prepared a detailed response to the Report from the Theological Forum to the 2017 General Assembly, with particular reference to the Appendix to the report: "An Approach to the Theology of Same-Sex Marriage (2017)"

Two versions of the response are available as PDF files - a short (six-page) version and a longer (sixteen-page) version for those wishing to engage in greater detail with the theological sources and arguments presented.

We hope and pray that this work will be helpful to Ministers, Elders and members who find themselves engaged in discussion and debate in Presbytery, in their local congregations or with others who may wish to consider this topic thoughtfully.

Attachments:

File	Description	File size
CFS response to TF Report	Brief	421 kB
CFS response to TF Report	Full	1001 kB