FORMER Church of Scotland minister the Rev. Dr Donald Macdonald, 52,
last night failed in a bid to persuade Glasgow Presbytery to grant him a
practising certificate.
The presbytery was told that its superintendence sub-committee had
been unanimously unable to affirm that he was ''in good standing''.
The Rev. David Easton, of Burnside, convener of the sub-committee,
said its conclusion during a consultation period was that Dr Macdonald,
former minister of Glasgow's Gaelic Church, St Columba, had shown an
attitude of contempt towards the Presbytery and that he had been
equivocal and devious.
Mr Easton said that Dr Macdonald, who has worked as a journalist,
broadcaster, and music publisher since leaving the charge of St Columba
in 1987, had gone back on promises not to speak to the press and had
made the issue a matter of public debate.
Dr Macdonald is no stranger to controversy. He resigned from St
Columba Gaelic Church after the break-up of his first marriage and he
later remarried the day his divorce came through.
He once commissioned a nude statue of Christ from a prisoner serving a
life sentence in the special unit at Glasgow's Barlinnie Prison.
He was represented before the presbytery last night by lawyer
Professor Ross Harper, who said Dr Macdonald was seeking a certificate
to allow him to conduct baptisms and communion for the housebound in
North Uist.
According to Church law, a certificate may be withheld if a minister
is found to have acted heretically or is guilty of conduct unbecoming.
The presbytery upheld the view of its sub-committee by 167 votes to 90.
In presenting his sub-committee's report, Mr Easton said that Dr
Macdonald ought to have applied for a ministerial certificate within two
months of demitting the St Columba charge. He had apparently felt that
it was injudicious to do so either because he ''didn't care or didn't
dare''.
He said that the unanimous decision of the superintendence
sub-committee to refuse a certificate had been based on judgments made
between June and September this year and not on events that had taken
place three-and-a-half years ago.
The relevant Act stated that a certificate should be granted where a
minister of the Church of Scotland was in good standing. The
sub-committee was unable to affirm that Dr Macdonald was such a minister
and was of the opinion that he lacked credibility.
Professor Harper said he had known Dr Macdonald for many years and it
was unfortunate that it was only now that detailed reasons were being
advanced for the certificate being refused.
Dr Macdonald said after the meeting: ''I feel we have lost the battle
but not the war and will be considering an appeal to the General
Assembly. I dearly love the Church of Scotland and have given 27 years
of my life to it only to have it disappear in just over 60 minutes
tonight.''
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