JUST ANOTHER DAY The third Monday of January has come and gone for this year, but

it brought to mind a trip to Atlanta I had made in 2012, and a visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. Centre on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, when I visited both his birthplace and the infamous Ebenezer Baptist Church. I am not a theologian, but I do confess to having read the writings of Martin Luther King Jr, and cannot but help draw parallels with the scriptures that underpinned his motivations and approach of how to deal with life, and the unique challenge of segregation which he and other non-white people faced. In his book of sermons, A Knock at Midnight, he says, in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. In Christ there is neither male nor female. In Christ there is neither Communist nor capitalist. In Christ, somehow, there is neither bound or free. We are all one in Christ Jesus (p.72) It brings to mind the Gospel of John, where Jesus says, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never turn away (6:37) There is nothing contentious in that, I think most Christians would agree that we are all one in Christ, and as followers of Christ, all, or indeed anyone as the Gospel says, are welcome at the Fathers table, who he will never turn away. But is this really so for his Churches? I hear on the news in February, that a second congregation, Gilcomston South Church in Aberdeen, has left the Church of Scotland. There is little doubt that the Church of Scotland does not have all the answers on life, indeed there is little to say Christianity or any other Churches or Faiths for that matter, have a monopoly of truth, but there is always a sadness when one group of people are unable to reconcile their beliefs with another group. The Church of Scotland agreed at their General Assembly in 2011 to set up a Special Commission to look at the whole issue surrounding the Ordination of Gay Ministers, which would report its findings to the Assembly in 2013. I expect the Congregations of the Tron in Glasgow, and now Gilcomston South in Aberdeen, perhaps felt that the Assembly should have taken a more decisive stance, and that the setting up of a Special Commission was to defer confronting the issue facing it until another day They may find some solace in the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in his Autobiography.

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, Is it safe? Expediency asks the question, Is it politic? And Vanity comes along and asks the question, Is it popular? But Conscience asks the question, Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right (p.342) And it is that issue of conscience that lies at the heart of the matter, for we are told that we must be true to our beliefs as Christians. But if, as is argued, a gay ministry is irreconcilable with the Gospels, then it must also be true that this viewpoint itself is irreconcilable with the whole essence and underlying philosophy of Christianity, which when expressed in simple terms would say that an, inclusive gospel cannot be shared by an exclusive people (George Sweeting). I was not present, but I believe Archbishop Desmond Tutu attended the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland a few years back. Interestingly those who were keen to talk up his presence, are less so inclined to talk up his view that, the persecution of people because of their sexual orientation,is every bit as unjust as that crime against humanity, apartheid (God is Not a Christian, Desmond Tutu, 2011). It is a sad fact of life that those who often express the greatest wisdom on a range of social and political issues, have often faced the most trying of circumstances across the globe, such as he faced in South Africa under the regime of apartheid. Yet in the United Kingdom, we do not need to reach outwith our own nation to recall troubles, as these were all too common an occurence in Northern Ireland. Great progress has been achieved there for fifteen years now, and although there are often setbacks along the road to peace, the will of the people and their elected representatives is to secure peace across their communities. In that cauldron of hostility, John Hume in his book, Peacemaker, summed up best of all not just a Christian perspective, but a humanitarian perspective, on how best to respond to those who are different to us in whatever form that may take. Its an accident of birth what you are born and where you are born and whether that accident is race, creed or nationality, it should never be a source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect difference (p.85) The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland must reach its conclusions in May this year when it meets. Will it decide to admit Gay Clergy, or will it choose to exclude a group of Christians as being in some way lesser than them, and retain its exclusivity? Or will nearly two hundred years on, from what Gottfreid Arnold wrote in Unpartheyische Kirchen und Ketzer-Historia (1729), as quoted by Tolstoy, treat those who advocate for an inclusive church in the time honoured church tradition.

Was it not a very common and easy method within the churchwhen the clergy wanted to get rid of a person or ruin him, to make him suspected as regards his doctrine and to throw over him a cloak of heresy, and thus to condemn and remove him? (The Kingdom of God is Within You, Leo Tolstoy). So when I reach Martin Luther King Day in 2014 and look back on the events of 2013, will it simply be just another day on the road to all becoming one in Christ, or will that road have been made smoother for all to walk upon it?

(Gordon MacLeod, the writer, is a member of the Church of Scotland. He is an author and has previously contributed a letter and article to the Church of Scotland's Monthly magazine, 'Life and Work')