Gay Marriage Mural Now Adorns Scottish Church

Scottish Episcopal church unveils gay wedding mural

by Stephen Gray
2 May 2012, 4:46pm

The church is on one of Edinburgh's busiest streets

A Scottish Episcopal church in Edinburgh has unveiled a mural of two men marrying in a religious ceremony.

St John’s Church on Princes Street, one of Edinburgh’s main streets, has a history of topical murals going back thirty years, displayed in full view to passers-by on the busy road.

Donald Reid, Associate Rector at the church, told PinkNews.co.uk it was on the “progressive end of the spectrum”.

He said many photographs have been taken but there had been no negative feedback to the mural whatsoever since it was erected on Saturday.

The image of two men, one about to place a ring on the other’s finger while a priest looks on under the words ‘God is love’ should stay up on the side of the church for two weeks.

Topics for murals are chosen by the church and the artist, Mike Greenlaw of Artists for Justice and Peace.

In December, the Scottish Episcopal Church filed its response to Scotland’s public consultation on opening up marriage to gay couples.

It said it was “bound by canons” to oppose marriage equality, saying that while it is possible for its canons to be changed by consultation within the Church, it was not possible to have a “full debate” in the timeframe of the consultation.

In October of last year, the Church’s head, The Most Rev David Chillingworth, said there was a possibility of it “changing [the] canonical definition of marriage”.

He wrote: “Jesus did not call the church into being as a citadel of orthodoxy. He was constantly criticised because he spent time with people who didn’t fit the conventional patterns and were deemed unacceptable by others.”

The associate rector at St John’s said the church had been surprised and disappointed that the denomination had not supported change in the consultation.   source