The Fellowship of Confessing Churches said there has been a flood of requests for its application packs as around 50 churches already affiliated have placed covenants in their buildings against same sex relationships.
The fellowship will not accept gay ordination under any circumstances and is on collision course with supporters of Reverend Scott Rennie, the openly gay minister whose appointment prompted a special commission to be set up by the Church of Scotland at its General Assembly to examine the issue.
Mr Rennie’s position at Aberdeen’s Queen’s Cross church was approved but the General Assembly agreed not to appoint any more gay ministers until after the special commission reports to back to the Kirk in 2011.
Congregations unhappy with the Church’s position will move to join the fellowship, which would have more than 150 members if the applications are processed.
Their stance threatens the greatest schism within the Kirk since the Disruption of 1843 when around a third of ministers broke away to form the Free Church of Scotland.
The Rev William Philip, of St George’s-Tron, Glasgow, said: “There are now 45 churches fully joined up to the fellowship. Many more are discussing membership – we have had more than 100 applications packs requested.”
It is also believed that an openly gay former lawyer who was nominated as a trainee minister and who then withdrew from the process is reconsidering the move.
It is understood Dmitri Ross, 42, approved to train with Hamilton Presbytery, may resume the process. If ordained, Mr Ross would be the first Kirk minister in a civil partnership and the first openly gay minister to be approved since the moratorium on gay appointments was agreed.
The submission of a “dissent and complaint” from within Hamilton Presbytery over its decision to support the training of Mr Ross also means the issue could now be scrutinised by the highest Kirk court, the General Assembly.
The detail of the complaint will first be heard in November by a commission of assembly made up of senior Kirk figures.
When he withdrew from full time training Mr Ross said: “I do not wish, and have never sought, to be a cause of division within the Church I love so dearly.”
Last week a posting by Mr Ross on a controversial website by Aberdeen minister the Rev Louis Kinsey asked correspondents “not to denigrate” him.
It read: “Please show me a little consideration. I only ever wanted to serve Christ. I have done what I believe is in the best interests of the Church of Scotland at this time, although this leaves me heartbroken and distraught. I would ask that you try to ensure that I am not denigrated on this site or elsewhere. I do not feel I deserve this.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article