Don’t misunderstand the headline on the BBC news home page this morning
This is nothing to do with me! As is clear from the full title of the linked page, Church of Scotland Assembly to debate gay ordinations, my surname is here being used in its alternative sense as a name, or journalistic abbreviation, for the Church of Scotland.
The word “kirk” is a Scottish and northern English dialect variant of “church”, probably of Viking origin. The place name of Danish origin “Kirkby” or “Kirby” is widely attested in northern England, and in the east as far south as Essex, but only in the half of England which was strongly influenced by Danish invasion and settlement, known as the Danelaw.
The word “kirk” is in fact of Greek origin, from kuriakos meaning “the Lord’s”.
My own Kirk ancestors are not Scottish but from Derbyshire in northern England. I have previously posted here a picture of my ancestral home.
Maybe another time I will consider gay ordinations, but not today.
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Just to clarify in the light of James McGrath’s interpretation of this post: when I wrote “I will consider gay ordinations”, I did not mean that I might be ordained as a gay person (I am happily married to a woman!), but only that I might write a post on this subject!
If you ever decide to get a dog have you thought of calling it ‘Scotty’.
“Kirk & Scotty -sounds logical to me Captain”
Good idea, Iconoclast, but I don’t think I would want a Scottish Terrier, and you can’t really call any other dog “Scotty”.
In case anyone reading this is actually interested in the Church of Scotland position on ordination of homosexuals, the BBC later reported, in an update to the same page, that
But a closer read shows that the decision is in fact more to put off a decision:
More on the Church of Scotland issue: Ekklesia reports that
Ekklesia goes on to describe what was actually decided, which seems to be more than just to put off a decision until 2013, but less than full approval of ministers in same-sex relationships.