Scottish churchman's attack on Bishop of Durham’s new appointment

By George Conger

THE DEAN of Glasgow has called upon alumni of St Andrews University to protest the appointment of the Bishop of Durham, Dr NT Wright, as Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity by withholding financial support from the Scottish University.

Appointed Bishop of Durham in 2003, on April 27, 2010 Dr Wright announced he would retire on Aug 31 to take up the academic post at St Andrews.

Writing on his website, the Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow, said he was “ashamed of St Andrews University” for appointing Dr Wright.

“It is hard to think of a more divisive figure to appoint. I don’t think it is to the credit of a modern university to appoint staff with such ghastly antigay views,” said Mr Holdsworth, a leading gay clergyman and activist in the Scottish Episcopal Church.

He stated the university regularly solicited funds, but the “answer from now on could not be clearer.

No extra funding for a university that appoints antigay figures to prominent positions. I hope other alumni will keep their hands firmly in their pockets and when the call comes for money, just say no.”

The Scottish Episcopal Church needed to be an institution “which does not do active harm to others.”

Bishop Wright’s statement that he would “discipline any members of the clergy in his diocese who entered into a partnership puts him firmly in the category of those who would harm others,” Mr Holdsworth said. Subscribe to the CEN for the full story