LONDON: A prominent Anglican cleric and gay rights campaigner known for contentious gestures has caused quite a stir by urging believers to pray for four-year-old Prince George, the third in line to the throne, to find the love “of a fine young gentleman” when he grows up so as to advance the cause of same-sex marriage in the Church of England.
Kelvin Holdsworth tweeted that English people could “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”.
Statement on Prayers for Prince George. (Please RT and share widely)https://t.co/fYzy2qnnLL
— Kelvin Holdsworth (@thurible) December 1, 2017
“A royal wedding might sort things out remarkably easily though we might have to wait 25 years for that to happen,” said Holdsworth, who is from the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Holdsworth, the rector of St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow, is himself gay and a campaigner for gay rights. The Scottish Episcopal Church, a branch of the Anglican Church, voted in June to remove the reference in the wedding ritual to marriage being a union “between a man and a woman”. It has since celebrated several same-sex marriages.
Anglican leaders in October disciplined the Scottish Episcopal Church in the same way as they did the US Episcopal Church in 2016 for approving gay marriage. Gavin Ashenden, a former chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II, condemned Holdsworth’s remarks.
“If you’re going to pray for Prince George, pray for him to be happy… and pray for him to discharge his duty as the prince, to be married and have children,” he told The New York 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 said.
