Scott Martin Rennie FRSA (born 31 March 1972) is a Scottish clergyman who is the Minister of Crown Court Church.
[1] Rennie subsequently formed a relationship with his now husband, David Smith[2] who is deputy head of College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh[3] and a Religion scholar.
[7] On 25 March 2009, following a narrow majority of 1, it was agreed by the Commission that the case be referred to the General Assembly, the Church of Scotland's supreme court, for judgement.
The General Assembly was unconvinced and comfortably defeated Parks's motion, having been persuaded that it would be unjust to hear the overture first due to the danger of anachronism.
[17] On the day of Rennie's hearing, 23 May, a protest against the appointment was held outside the General Assembly Hall by around twenty members of Glasgow's Zion Baptist Church.
[23] Debate on the Lochcarron-Skye overture was postponed until Monday 25 May, when it was decided to establish a two-year Special Commission on the issue reporting in 2011.
In January 2009, a censurable allegation against Rennie, that his 'lifestyle' constituted a great 'public scandal' (or Fama Clamosa in Church of Scotland law), was lodged with the Presbytery of Angus (in which Brechin Cathedral resides).
A committee of three was formed to investigate this allegation, but it was immediately suspended due to the pending Aitken and Others versus the Presbytery of Aberdeen case.
[26]On Wednesday 3 June, an Angus Presbytery Investigating Committee met to consider the allegation against Rennie that his 'lifestyle' was not acceptable for a minister of the gospel.
On Sunday 5 July, James Simpson, a former moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, led worship and preached the first sermon by way of welcome to Rennie.
[28] On Thursday 24 February, Rennie was invited to participate in a debate at the Cambridge Union Society entitled: 'This House Believes the Path to Success is Straight.'
Alongside Lieutenant Commanders Craig Jones MBE and Mandy McBain, Rennie proposed the motion, while Lord Smith of Finsbury, Andrew Pierce, and Femi Otitoju were narrowly successful in opposing it.
"[33]Fred Phelps responded by condemning the Church of Scotland, Scott Rennie, the Government of the United Kingdom, and Mark McDonald in a YouTube broadcast.
[34] Following the restatement of the ban on the Phelps' entry to the United Kingdom, the Aberdeen National Front indicated their intention to protest against Rennie and Queen's Cross Church on Sunday 30 October.
[35] In a rare interview on Radio Scotland's 'Sunday Morning with Ricky Ross', broadcast on 25 September 2011, Rennie discussed his faith and life.
On Thursday 2 February 2012, The Scotsman newspaper reported that a motion had been lodged with the Presbytery of Aberdeen by Louis Kinsey of St Columba's Church, Aberdeen, in order to seek to prevent Queen's Cross Church from allowing Hindus to meet "every second Sunday afternoon" in their "congregational hall" due to their "sacrificial worship offered to idols and false deities...[which] contravenes the First and Second Commandments.
On Saturday 28 July 2012, The Scotsman reported comments by Rennie, made in response to the Scottish Government's marriage consultation: “I believe that love shared and celebrated in society, between two people of the same sex, should make no-one afraid and can only enrich the communities in which we live.
"[46] In summer 2015, Rennie participated in a 'pulpit exchange' with Louise Westfall, Senior Pastor of Central Presbyterian Church (Denver, Colorado).