Minister applies to join Free Church 31/1/12
By Bill Lucas
The Rev Andrew Coghill, who last year resigned as Minister of Crossbost Church of Scotland in Lochs, Lewis, following the General Assembly decision to allow lesbians and homosexuals men to serve as church ministers, has applied to join the Free Church of Scotland.
His application came before the Western Isles Presbytery of the Free Church of Scotland at their meeting in Stornoway yesterday (Tuesday). The application was remitted to the Ministry Committee and a report will come before the next Presbytery meeting on February 28.
Mr Coghill was minister of Crossbost Church of Scotland for 18 years. Last May he
informed his congregation 'with heartfelt sorrow and grief' -
This followed the General Assembly decision to allow gay ministers to preach in the national church if they were ordained before 2009. A Commission was also set up to examine the question of whether other gay ministers should be permitted to preach within Church of Scotland pulpits.
In a statement to his congregation at the time Mr Coghill said: 'I think no less of those honourable evangelical brethren who feel their place is to stay, and I hope and pray they will think no less of me whose conscience now dictates that I must leave.
'I do not expect, encourage or require that any of you should follow me out of the Church of Scotland, for I have nowhere to lead you, and I do not know the direction of my own future. I personally cannot continue to serve, and receive the stipend, of a Church which as an institution, has chosen its own gods, and departed from the God of the Bible, whatever words may be used to contrary.'