PAA senior Anglican minister has said that Christians should pray for Prince George to be gay, in order to force the Church of England to support same-sex marriage.
The Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth wrote in a blog post that Christians should hope that ‘the Lord blesses George with the love of a fine young gentleman’ to help progress LGBTQ+ rights in the church.
A staunch campaigner for LGBTQ+ rights, Rev Holdsworth is the provost of St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow, a Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church of England’s sister institution.
GettyHe wrote:
If people don’t want to engage in campaigning in this way, they do in England have another unique option, which is to pray in the privacy of their hearts (or in public if they dare) for the Lord to bless Prince George with a love, when he grows up, of a fine young gentleman.
As it stands, same-sex couples are not allowed to marry in the Church of England, while the Scottish Episcopal Church voted to allow priests to decide for themselves.
Referring to how the Church of England is falling behind the times when it comes to same-sex marriage, he added:
A royal wedding might sort things out remarkably easily, though we might have to wait 25 years for that to happen. Who knows whether that might be sooner than things working out by other means?
GettyIn light of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s recent announcement, Holdsworth was quick to raise the issue: Meghan Markle is a divorcee, and divorcees marrying in church is frowned upon under the same church law that frowns on same-sex marriage.
Speaking to The Independent, Rev Holdsworth said that as leader of the Church of England, it is ultimately up to the Archbishop of Canterbury to decide the Church’s stance on same-sex marriage.
He added:
[The Archbishop of Canterbury] is rightly enthusiastic about the upcoming royal wedding taking place in church. The trouble for him is that the same canon law (Canon B30) that he and the other bishops are prepared to find a way of ignoring when it comes to a divorcee marrying in church also would be said to be the reason gay couples can’t get married in church.
I want to ask, would the Archbishop be so enthusiastic if a member of the royal family wanted to marry a same-sex partner?
PAUltimately, however, the supreme governor of the Church of England is the reigning monarch – in other words Prince George’s great-grandmother. Prince George could one day be supreme governor of the Church of England as third in line to the throne.
While Prince George’s upbringing will be undoubtedly be far from ‘normal’, shouldn’t Christians – or anyone for that matter – pray for him to just be healthy and happy in life, and to be brought up with some common decency?
That way, regardless of sexual orientation, our future King won’t have to be ‘prayed’ to be anything, and will have the sense to be open, inclusive, and accepting of all.
Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.