Church of Scotland - The big gay debate

Why is there such interest in the gay debate in the Church of Scotland (as well as the Anglican etc)? Other people's personal lives -especially the sex part. It is delicious gossip especially if there is a whiff of scandal about it or indeed controversy. 'Reality' TV shows like TOWIE and Jersey Shore epitomize this. Sex sells. Gossip magazines exploit this. Interestingly gossip is a sin.
And there is no such thing as a major sin (there are of course worse crimes than other crimes, but that's a different matter) in the Bible. It's all major. Sin is sin. Jesus Christ dying wasn't on a whim but death is the cost of sin. And let me be quite clear - All have sinned (Romans 3:23); except Jesus Christ. I'm no less a sinner than a mass murder or the Pope. Forgiveness for any and all sin is via faith in Christ. The Bible talks about grace being dispensed so that we can have the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23). Anyway that's a wee aside.
Let me offer a reason why I believe that the CoS should think hard about its confusingly, liberal stance today. For those that missed it they didn't say you couldn't appoint a gay minister, you can if you wish. Basically the over all church's stance hasn't changed but if an individual congregation wants to appoint one they can. There's an opt-in/opt-out clause for appointments of openly practising homosexual ministers. At least that's what my semi-legal mind understands it to mean.
In both the OT & NT the prohibition is on homosexual activity not the orientation. In fact the NT is stronger and more graphic than the OT in it's language (Greek) found in the Pauline epistles (letters to the early churches). There are also one or two other passages in other books.
The OT prohibitions in law are found in Leviticus and there are other passages where it's shown to be a sin via example, most obviously Sodom & Gomorrah in Genesis. The OT law is more complicated than a straight forward right or wrong. There is: sin law which remains e.g the 10 commandments etc, and there is the ceremonial and sacrificial law which doesn't apply to Christians thanks to Christ's fulfilment of those aspects of the law through His death and resurrection. Again the prohibition is on acts of homosexuality.
The problem is the moral slide in the CoS is so far down the road that it's hard for them not to justify allowing gay couples to minister. For example there is the teaching on heterosexual relationships which have been 'revised' which is accepted in the CoS as perfectly okay. For example a minister who is in a sexual relationship with someone who is not their spouse. Divorced and remarried preachers is another. However, I should congratulate them on the mature and gracious way they have conducted their debates over the years. It's been Christian debating that's truly exemplary. No name calling or slagging others. The debate was civilized and it should be out in the rest of the world.
The Bible is like an anchor for the church. It seems they have changed bits of it to make it less weighteous, in order not to weight the good ship CoS down too much.
Essentially there was no problem with the old rule of abstaining from sexual activity (whether gay or straight) and many elders and ministers fall into this category. The calling of Christ was to take up your cross not take it easy.

2013

Well the world didn't end in December and we survived Christmas too, so happy new year!

As a bonus treat Lizzie and I went to Glasgow twice and were there over 3 months. Go figure that out*! At the end of November we were up for a wedding where Lizzie was a bridesmaid so were returned in December and Lizzie had short notice annual leave so we were able to pop up for the new year. 

There was lots happening in the gap between our trips to Glasgow with a Church Christmas party, which went really well and plenty of friends and neighbours came along. Another great time was the Sunday before Christmas, which now seems ages ago, when the children and youth in the church put on sketches during the morning service and the toddlers sang some carols. Impact did a sketch covering key events in the Old Testament as seen through the eyes of some angels, up until they were called off to sing to some shepherds in Bethlehem's fields. 

Carys and I wrote the sketch and despite some illness on the day it worked very well. Christmas wouldn't mean anything if it wasn't for the rest of the Bible and that was what we were trying to show in the sketch. A big thank you to all those who took part and we hope our ill performers made a quick recovery.  

We had a very modern Nativity play with Mary being a single parent, our Joseph was also ill. Coincidently the infant school had an ill Mary and they worked round this by dressing Joseph up as Mary. He was very convincing until they took the hood off to reveal an almighty scowl. I'm sure he'll remember his role as Mary for the rest of his life, just as one of the girls in Impact always remembers, rather resentfully, being the donkey at her school when she was 5. To make matters worse I did a de-constructing Christmas quiz with them, think QI  with Christmas questions. We have a great way of dressing up Christmas to be very sanitized, warm and, magical, although for the cynics out there make that commercial. I'm sure it was anything but. The main thing that upset her was learning there was no donkey in the story and she had therefore crawled around on the stage with Mary on her back for no reason. Christmas is gritty and grimy. Think about it - a young girl giving birth in an animal storage area. It's anything but sanitary. However, Christmas is about Jesus coming into the world as one of us. The pagans used to celebrate the passing of the winter solstice round about Christmas. When Christian missionaries came along instead of abolishing the practice the changed it into a Christian festival. No longer was it about the coming of spring with lighter nights, it was now about the coming of the Light of the World, and the new life available in Christ. Besides nobody knows Jesus actual birthday - it could well be the 25th of December.

Up until the 1950s Christmas was not a public holiday in Scotland, something to do with Catholic superstition, so the new year was the big celebration up there. Now they have two big celebrations. It was great surprising family members who didn't know we were up. My brother in law, David, opened the door, jaw dropped then said "What are you doing here?" Charming. It was great being able to see so many family members whilst being up there and do things with them. We went to see the Hobbit with Lizzie's parents and my youngest sister, and we spent Hogmanay with some friends before going to my other sisters. We partook of the traditional viewing of Only an Excuse? a satirical look at the past 12 months in the mad world of Scottish football.
I can only wonder at what's in store for 2013 in my own mad world.
*For those struggling to work this out: Visit 1: November/December
Visit 2: December/January (albeit very briefly)
PS I wrote this ages ago and only discovered I never posted it! Doh!

This is home

Who knew moving house could be so unpredictable? After all houses don't do that much moving. Lizzie and I were due to move into a house in central Caerleon back in January but for one reason or another that fell through at the last minute - we even had packed most of our stuff. Having been with Owen and Ruth a bit longer than planned meant there was a slight problem - they were due to have 2 set of missionaries turning up 4 weeks later. It was hard enough finding a place and now we had to start all over again. We viewed a couple of places including one ridiculous place. It was advertised as part furnished. Quite which part was furnished I'm not too sure. Was it the rug, the ironing board, or the cheap light shade? The kitchen was also conspicuous by it's absence of appliances along with a butchered work top. Needless to say we didn't move there.
We did find a charming semi-detached property on the other side of the village from Owen's place which is where we are staying now. We moved in on the 16th of March, yes that's a while back, as the next lot of OMSers were arriving at Owen's house on the 18th. Now normally that's not a problem. However, we had to be in Fife (~470 miles from Caerleon; ~80 miles from Glasgow) on the 15th of March and we were in Glasgow collecting some of our household items that week. That meant we would be getting back in Glasgow on Friday evening, packing the car and then leaving on the Saturday morning (386 miles to Caerleon). We set out nice and early giving ourselves plenty of time to get to Newport where the estate agents are based for 3pm. We then made a fatal error. We were making such good time we stopped for brunch. That was fine. We refueled ourselves and the car when we hit a traffic jam before we even rejoined the motorway. We still had plenty of time and an hour to spare, what we didn't count on was this being a major traffic jam caused by a serious accident with the air ambulance coming in and out. We called the estate agents and told them about this delay and we were unsure if we would be able to move in that day.
Some anxious prayer and and sweating (it was actually sunny and hot!) followed by more waiting had seen us being an hour ahead to being 30 mins behind schedule with over 100 miles to go. We got to Newport, by which point the weather had gone from baking hot to monsoon-esque rainfall, slowing us further, at 4pm. Thankfully we got the keys and moved in that day and also fitted in a trip to the supermarket after that too!

My laptop which has the picture of our new place has died so here is
a picture of a car which has nothing to do with us or our house
 but I thought I would put it in anyway.

Why am I going over this? Has nothing interesting happened with the youth ministry since I last posted on here? Well of course there has been lots of good things happening with the youth but, this is an encouraging story of the difference prayer makes. Sure we might have made it and got the house if we hadn't prayed in the car. But go further back, back to when the first house fell through. We were both set on that house - it was perfect for us. After that I honestly didn't know what we were going to do. Houses in the right condition, in the right price range don't often come up in Caerleon. Not only that we had less than a month to find a place and move in. I forgot to mention there was some work being done on the house so we couldn't move in for what was 3 weeks which meant we would be left rather cosy with the new arrivals a chez Reynolds. In the end the work was done in 2 1/2 weeks which meant we could go to Glasgow and get our stuff and we would be out of the Ruth & Owen's house a full 40 hours before our OMS colleagues arrived.
Over the last 18 months I've seen God at work with some amazing answers to prayer. I've learned to trust God more - I had no idea where would be staying when the house on Bodington (sp?) Terrace fell through, all I could do was cling to a hope that God had a plan for us. The place we're now in is the same price and it has a better garden and there is more car parking space along with a garage.

The view we are missing from Owen and Ruth's place

Lizzie and I have been incredibly blessed by good support this year both in prayer and financially. We want to thank you for that. I hope we can count on you to continue doing so with us for the next 3 months. We also want to take this opportunity to say that we won't be extending the contract with OMS to continue at Lodge Farm after August. There may be a slight extension into September as that is when the lease is up on the house, but that's not been confirmed. Also I feel it is important to say that I want ensure there is a smooth transition from me to whoever, takes over, if someone takes over at Lodge Farm. I am determined to leave well.
I'll post more in due course. Lizzie and I have enjoyed being at Lodge Farm and are grateful for their support, friendship, fellowship, and the opportunities they have provided us with.