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Church of Scotland Backs Adoption of Children in Statement to Lawmakers

by Hilary White

EDINBURGH June 8, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Church of Scotland (Presbyterian), the nation's national church, has approved the adoption of children by homosexuals, in a statement given before a Scottish Parliamentary committee.

The Presbyterian Church of Scotland, commonly called the Kirk, told the Scottish Parliament’s Education Committee that while married couples are ideal in adoption consideration, that in the face of the growing need for adoptive parents, “we can see some force in giving legal recognition to the realities of these situations.”

The Scottish Parliament is currently considering a proposed Adoption and Children Bill.

The Education Committee completed its consultations with the public and interested parties yesterday and will begin to consider the submitted evidence in the coming months. The proposed legislation would widen the rules to allow joint adoption by unmarried and same-sex partners. Homosexuals can already adopt children legally, but only as single individuals.

The Kirk’s statement continued, “However, given that the alternatives for many children under the present legislation are far from ideal, often involving successive short-term fostering, we would, on balance, support the proposals to allow unmarried or unregistered couples (of different sexes or of the same sex) to adopt jointly.”

The Kirk announced in November last year it would be considering gay adoption with a statement saying, “while we do not believe that the status of the relationship between adult potential adopters should be an absolute bar to them adopting jointly, we would hope that there would be explicit recognition that no 'right to adopt' is created by the bill.”

That announcement triggered a formal protest from the Evangelical wing of the church that said that the policy was drafted by a small group of liberal activists on a sub-committee within the Kirk who then presented it as the official view.

As a Presbyterian church, the Kirk has no bishops or central authority on doctrine or morals, but is governed by “presbyters.” The supreme body is the annual General Assembly, which meets each May in Edinburgh.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage: Church of Scotland Considers Allowing Embryo Research, IVF http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/apr/06042405.html

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