Interfaith LGBT
presented at Connecting Generations: LGBT+ People of Faith, 12 Nov 2018, during Scottish Interfaith Week
My name is Bill English, I am an Elder in the Church of Scotland (Clincarthill Parish Church), I am married with two Gay adult kids.
I want to talk first of all about Affirmation Scotland, this is a group within the CofS which supports full inclusion of LGBT folk within the national church. I have attended 5/6 of the last PRIDE events in Glasgow.
Several years ago, I brought the matter of Clincarthill possibly becoming an Affirming congregation, I spoke to the Minister at the time (Mike Gargrave) who help me draw up materials that would assist the Kirk Session in making a decision.
Although I lost the vote (20-1), the whole discussion was conducted with love and understanding, at least we had the discussion.
At the time only, our daughter (Kirstie) had told us she was Gay, (Stephen)- our son came later, I said at the time- I was in the bizarre position of being quite content that Kirstie had no interest in Church – so she was spared the deep hurt felt by some LGBT folk with in the CofS.
Folks I feel like a bit of a fraud , I have no tale of woe to tell – it took me 45 seconds to get my head round it with Kirstie, a minute and a half with Stephen, even then that was only because I didn`t know if it was ACTUALLY possible to have TWO Gay kids (it is, and through Affirmation Scotland I found out I`m not the only one).
I don`t say this to prove to you that I'm some sort of "Mr Cool"… it`s just the way it is, nor do I have any issues with anyone who has a different view from my own on this matter, other than I disagree (I have no monopoly on the truth).
Indeed, I have met with those whose views are the polar opposite of my own (he was also at Pride , but on the other side if you know what I mean, we met for coffee and actually had a good chat) this gets to the heart of what I want to say this evening – we must always try to keep where possible the channels of dialogue open – if we look around the world there are enough examples of where dialogue between opposing sides has broken down perhaps beyond repair in some cases.
I hope we can all strive to ensure that does not happen here.... we only have one life, lets live it together.
Bill English, 29.10.18