Assembly area
Special Commission on Same-Sex Relationships and the Ministry
On this page you can find:
Remit of the Special Commission
Membership of the Commission
Proposed method of working
Consultation documents
Remit of the Special Commission
The General Assembly of 2009 appointed a Special Commission with this remit:
"A Special Commission composed of nine persons, representative of the breadth and unity of the Church, to consult with all Presbyteries and Kirk Sessions and to prepare a study on Ordination and Induction to the Ministry of the Church of Scotland in the light of the issues
(a) addressed in a Report welcomed by the General Assembly of 2007: 'A challenge to unity: same-sex relationships as an issue in theology and human sexuality', and
(b) raised by the case of Aitken et al v the Presbytery of Aberdeen,
and to report to the General Assembly of 2011."
Membership of the Commission
Rev John Chalmers
Pastoral Adviser and Associate Secretary (Ministries Support and Development) Ministries Council
Mrs Ruth Innes
Advocate, member of Palmerston Place Church
Very Rev Dr Sheilagh Kesting
former Moderator of General Assembly, Secretary & Ecumenical Officer, Ecumenical Relations Committee
Rev Dr Donald MacEwan
Minister of Largoward linked with St Monans, secretary of the working group which produced "A Challenge to Unity"
Rev Dr Angus Morrison
Minister of Stornoway St Columba, immediate past Convener of Mission & Discipleship Council, also a member of the working group
Rev James Stewart
Minister of Perth: Letham St Mark’s, with experience of a previous commission
Rev Professor Allan J Torrance
Professor of Systematic Theology, University of St Andrews
Miss Kim Wood
Student at Dundee University; a Youth Representative to the General Assembly from Presbytery of Glasgow
Convener
The Hon. Lord Hodge (Patrick Hodge)
Court of Session Judge; former Procurator of the Church
Clerk to the Special Commission
Rev W Peter Graham
former Clerk to the Presbytery of Edinburgh
Proposed method of working
The Special Commission will prepare a short consultation paper which will invite Presbyteries and Kirk Sessions to express their views on the questions which the Commission considers arise from its remit and the divisions in the Church which have led to its appointment.
Documents to supplement the consultation paper will be made available on the Church's website here.
In order to inform the consultation document, and in particular to enable the Commission to express accurately the competing views within the Church and the views of other Churches, the Commission is engaged in a pre-consultation exercise of obtaining current statements of such views.
The aim is to enable it to summarise those views accurately in the consultation paper.
The consultation paper is available to download below, with a consultation period until the end of May 2010, during which the Commission will expect every Presbytery and Kirk Session to hold a special meeting in order to prepare a response.
The Commission will spend the latter part of the year in analysing the responses and preparing its report for the General Assembly of 2011.
Consultation documents
The documents below can be downloaded as part of the consultation process.
| Download the consultation paper by the Special Commission |
[.pdf]
(381KB)
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| Download Panel of Doctrine report to the General Assembly 2000 |
[.pdf]
(101KB)
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| Download Panel of Doctrine report to the General Assembly 2001 |
[.pdf]
(108KB)
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| Download Challenge to Unity report to the General Assembly 2007 |
[.pdf]
(187KB)
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To view PDF documents we recommend using Adobe Reader software, which is available to download for free from the Adobe website.
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