A casual reader of the Jan. 19 news article “Church of England refuses to preside over same-sex marriages” might conclude that the Church of Scotland is ecclesiastically allied with the Church of England and the Anglican Church in Wales. It is not. The Church of Scotland, the state church of Scotland, is Presbyterian in heritage and polity. The Anglican Communion is represented in Scotland by the Scottish Episcopal Church, formerly known as the Episcopal Church in Scotland, to which the Episcopal Church in the United States partly owes its lineage, as the first American bishop, Samuel Seabury, was consecrated in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1784.
The Scottish Episcopal Church opened the door to solemnizing same-sex marriages in 2017, the Church of Scotland last May. In both denominations, clergy who choose to marry same-sex couples must follow a process to become an approved celebrant of such unions according to Scottish law and the guidelines of their denomination.
Sue Mosher, Arlington