Christians should pray for Prince George to be gay, says senior Scottish reverend

Christians should pray for Prince George to be gay in order to force the Church of England to support same-sex marriage, a senior Anglican minister has said.

The Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth wrote in a blog post that Christians should hope that “the Lord blesses George with the love of a fine young gentleman” to help the progression of LGBTQ+ rights in the church.

He wrote: “If people don’t want to engage in campaigning in this way, they do in England have another unique option, which is to 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.

“A royal wedding might sort things out remarkably easily, though we might have to wait 25 years for that to happen. Who knows whether that might be sooner than things working out by other means?”

Rev Holdsworth is a LGBTQ+ campaigner and the provost of St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow, a Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church of England’s sister institution.

Currently same-sex couples are not allowed to marry in the Church of England, while The Scottish Episcopal Church voted to allow priests to decide for themselves.

Rev Holdsworth told The Independent that as leader of the Church of England, it is ultimately up to the Archbishop of Canterbury to decide the Church's stance on same-sex marriage.

“The question is really one for the Archbishop of Canterbury," he said.

"He is rightly enthusiastic about the upcoming royal wedding taking place in church. The trouble for him is that the same canon law (Canon B30) that he and the other bishops are prepared to find a way of ignoring when it comes to a divorcee marrying in church also would be said to be the reason gay couples can't get married in church.

“I want to ask, would the Archbishop be so enthusiastic if a member of the royal family wanted to marry a same-sex partner?”

The Archbishop announced that he was "delighted" that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would get married, despite Ms Markle being divorced. Both same-sex marriages and divorcees getting married in church are frowned on by the same church law.

Rev Holdsworth's blog post has prompted controversy, with former chaplain to the Queen, Rev Gavin Ashenden, describing it as praying "the child out of the intentions of God."

Rev Ashenden told Christian Today: "It is an unkind and destabilising prayer. It is the theological equivalent of the curse of the wicked fairy in one of the fairy tales.

“To co-opt the Royal children to service a narrow sexual agenda seems particularly tasteless.”

Rev Holdsworth's comments urging Christians to pray for the four-year-old future monarch and head of the Church of England to be gay was part of a list of suggestions to force LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Church of England.