Leaders of the Scottish Episcopal Church have added fuel to a controversy dividing their Anglican Communion worldwide by declaring for the first time that in their church practicing homosexuals are not barred from becoming priests.
They also criticized the leaders of the 78-million communion for seeking to isolate Anglican churches in North America following the consecration of an openly gay bishop in the United States and the introduction of a blessing for same-sex couples in a part of Canada.
"The Scottish Episcopal Church has never regarded the fact that someone was in a close relationship with a member of the same sex as in itself constituting a bar to the exercise of an ordained ministry," the denomination's College of Bishops said in a statement on Wednesday.
They did not say whether any bishop had ordained a person in an actively gay relationship, but acknowledged that "on occasion" clergy had blessed people in same-sex relationships.
The bishops were responding to last year's Windsor Report on the dispute about homosexuality within the Anglican Communion as well as the results of a meeting of primates, as Anglican leaders are called, in February.
"We are conscious that as a church we are much indebted in our life both to a significant presence of persons of homosexual (lesbian and gay) orientation, and also to those whose theology and stance would be critical of attitudes to sexuality other than abstinence outside marriage. We rejoice in both," said the bishops.
Lorna Finley, spokesperson for the Scottish Episcopal Church, said it was the first time the bishops had expressed the policy on gay ordinations in a statement.
Richard Kirker, general secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, said the issue of homosexuality had been "out in the open" in Scotland for many years.
He told Ecumenical News International: "Other parts of the Anglican Communion should take note of the Scottish church's example and take comfort from the fact that the church has held together while practicing inclusivity."
