Senior Anglican minister calls for Christians to pray that Prince George is gay
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Christians should pray that Prince George is gay as it would be “the fastest way” to force the Church of England to support same-sex marriage, a Senior Anglican priest has said.
Scottish Episcopal Church clergyman The Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth suggested that Christians in England ask “for the Lord to bless Prince George with a love, when he grows up, of a fine young gentleman.”
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He added: “And remember that God is distinctly non-binary in scripture.”
In June, the Scottish Episcopal Church – which is the Church of England’s sister institution – became the first mainstream branch of Christianity in the UK to allow same-sex weddings.
Provost Holdsworth (right) (Twitter/kelvin holdsworth)
The comments from Provost Holdsworth, who runs St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow, were posted in the wake of Meghan Markle’s engagement to Prince Harry.
They prompted a fiery response from the Queen’s former chaplain.
(Twitter/kelvin holdsworth)
Right Rev Gavin Ashenden, a Church of England clergyman who served the Queen from 2008 until earlier this year, said that praying for the Prince to be gay was “more like a curse”.
“If you’re going to pray for Prince George, pray for him to be happy … and pray for him to discharge his duty as prince, to be married and have children,” he told The Times.
“It is not a kind prayer. It is not a blessing, it’s more like a curse from a fairytale.
“I would say it’s profoundly un-Christian,” he concluded.
Provost Holdsworth on Nigerian Independence Day (Twitter/kelvin holdsworth)
Speaking to Christian Today, Ashenden added: “To pray for Prince George to grow up in that way, particularly when part of the expectation is he will inherit is to produce a biological heir with a woman he loves, is to pray in a way that would disable and undermine his constitutional and personal role.
Calling the prayer “destabilising,” he added: “It is the theological equivalent of the curse of the wicked fairy in one of the fairy tales.
“It is un-Christian as well as being anti-constitutional. It is a very long way from being a blessing for Prince George.”
Right Rev Ashenden resigned from his position in protest of the acceptance of “values that are anti-Christian”.
He was one of the clergyman who in July threatened to rebel against the Church of England over moves towards LGBT-inclusivity.
Provost Holdsworth, 51, who has long campaigned for the Church to hold same-sex weddings, sparked the controversy when he tweeted a link to his blog post from January.
In the post, he wrote that Christians in England have a “unique option” for speeding up reform.
He 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.
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“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 might work out by other means?
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The clergyman wrote the blog to outline the ways in which “in which I think LGBT inclusion will be won in the Church of England.”
In the post, he also called on Christians to pressure the House of Commons and political parties, and to raise the issue in the General Synod of the Church of England.
(Twitter/kelvin holdsworth)
After tweeting this blog to his 3,000 followers, he received hateful replies accusing him of being a paedophile and calling him “sick,” “depraved” and, in one case, “a deluded goat.”
Others, however, said the blog raised “a very valid point,” while one Twitter user called it “absolutely brilliant and inspired!”
Polling earlier this week showed that nearly half of Brits would object to a gay royal wedding.
