The Church of Scotland will take its first faltering steps to align itself with equality legislation today when it debates three little words: “same-sex marriage”.
In what promises to be a long and heated debate, 730 commissioners at the General Assembly will be asked to consider amending legislation passed on Saturday, which made it possible for a congregation to appoint a minister in a same-sex civil partnership.
To outsiders, the addition of the words “and same-sex marriage” to the policy might seem semantics. But for the evangelical minority at the Assembly in Edinburgh, it would represent an infringement of an article of faith: that God created marriage between a man and woman.
“For some, it will be a bridge too far,” said a church insider.