The Queen’s chaplain has said a Scottish cathedral that allowed a girl to read a passage from the Quran denying the divinity of Jesus should apologise to Christians “suffering dreadful persecution at the hands of Muslims.”
Last week a girl recited a passage from the Quran which denies that Jesus was the Son of God and says he should not be worshipped during a service to St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow.
But Reverend Gavin Ashenden said the reading could be described as “blasphemy.”
In a letter to The Times, Rev Ashenden said: “Sanctioning a key passage from the Koran which denies the divinity of Jesus to be read in Christian worship has been widely criticised as rather a serious failure. The justification offered that it engages some kind of reciprocity founders on the understandable refusal of Islamic communities to read passages from the Gospel in Muslim prayers announcing the Lordship of Christ. It never happens.
“Quite apart from the wide distress (some would say blasphemy) caused by denigrating Jesus in Christian worship, apologies may be due to the Christians suffering dreadful persecution at the hands of Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere.
“To have the core of a faith for which they have suffered deeply treated so casually by senior Western clergy such as the Provost of Glasgow is unlikely to have a positive outcome. There are other and considerably better ways to build ‘bridges of understanding’.”
However, the cathedral’s provost, Kelvin Holdsworth, is unrepentant and even suggested that those who were offended were actually attacking him because he is gay.
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“Having a recitation from the Qur’an in a Christian cathedral in worship is not a new thing,” he wrote in a blog post.
“So it has indeed come as something of a surprise to find accounts of last week’s service appearing online and stirring up the most incredible pot of hatred I’ve ever encountered.
“This same Quranic reading has been given before in services and no outcry has happened. Is it because this is in a cathedral run by a gay man? Is it because the recitation was given by a young woman?
“Clearly those things are factors as they feature in some of the abuse.”
