Senior Anglican minister apologises for urging Christians to pray for Prince George to be gay
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The senior minister who said Christians should pray for Prince George to be gay has apologised.
Last week, Provost Kelvin Holdsworth tweeted a blog post in which he wrote that the four-year-old being gay would be “the fastest way” to get Church of England-officiated same-sex weddings.
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The Scottish Episcopal Church clergyman 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.”
In June, his 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)
His tweet introducing the blog post read: “My point about the fastest way to make the C of E more inclusive being to pray for Prince George to be blessed one day with the love of a fine young gentleman comes to mind at this time.”
It was posted last Tuesday – the day after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement.
(Twitter/thurible)
He has now said that he was “sorry” for an “ironic” comment made years ago.
The Provost’s comments sparked a fiery response from the Queen’s former chaplain, Rev Gavin Ashenden.
Ashenden encouraged people to pray that the Prince grows up to marry a woman and avoid the “curse of the wicked fairy”.
“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,” he continued.
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“It is a very long way from being a blessing for Prince George.”
But Provost Holdsworth, who runs St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow, appeared to walk back his remarks in his latest blog post on the issue.
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He wrote: “This week, this old post has received much media attention, many people presuming that it was a new post and part of a commentary about the Royal Family rather than the church.
“The post was entirely about the church and its policies around LGBT inclusion.
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“I could spend the next few weeks defending that post and keep reminding people what it was originally about,” he continued on his blog, called What’s in Kelvin’s Head?
“However, it seems to me that isn’t likely to be fruitful.
“The ironic comment that I made quite a while ago could be seen as hurtful to members of the Royal Family, a group of people whom I actually rather admire.
(Twitter/kelvin holdsworth)
“I’m sorry that something that I wrote has been interpreted in the way that it has.
“It was not my intention to cause hurt and I regret that this has led to the current focus on Prince George.”
Provost Holdsworth on Nigerian Independence Day (Twitter/kelvin holdsworth)
The clergyman added: “We’ve seen media frenzies around the Royal Family before. No doubt we will see them again.
“I’m sorry that I inadvertently provoked this one by something I wrote some time ago.”
