IT is an interesting coincidence that the call for the Church of Scotland to apologise for discrimination against gay people, made by its influential theological forum, has come in the same week it was revealed the number of regular churchgoers in Scotland has fallen by 54 per cent in 30 years. The decline in congregations has happened partly because Christians no longer feel the need to attend church every week, but it could also be because religion is increasingly seen as out of touch with the changing realities of modern life.

Should it go ahead, an apology from the Church of Scotland over discrimination against gay people could go a long way to changing that perception, although it would also be welcome on its own merits. As the forum’s report acknowledges, the Kirk has often failed to recognise and protect the identity of gay people; it has also failed to accept or protect their position in the church, either in the pulpit or the pews. It was, and is, discrimination and if the Church acknowledges that and apologises, it would be a major step forward for the Kirk and Scottish public life.

However, for the apology to have real and lasting meaning, the Church will also have to do what it can to prevent discrimination from happening again and in that area, there is still work to do. The Kirk deserves credit for the vote at the General Assembly last year to allow ministers to serve if they are in a gay marriage. The forum’s report also states that the definition of marriage has been far from constant in Christian history. These are all steps forward and send a message to faith communities and society as a whole that the Church is changing. However, the daily reality is still the same: ministers are not permitted to conduct gay marriages within the church.

As long as that rule still stands in any church, it is hard to see how it can be seen as truly free of discrimination, but, given the divisions that exist within the Kirk on the issue of gay marriage, the forum’s report is a welcome and balanced step forward and lays out a credible route to reform.

What the forum says is that it does not believe there are sufficient theological grounds to deny individual ministers the authority to preside at same-sex marriages, while also calling for more work to be done on how any change would affect ministers who refuse to conduct such marriages. Specifically, the forum would like to see the conscientious refusal of some ministers to conduct gay marriages protected.

In the circumstances, this is a reasonable suggestion and a sensible way of seeking a compromise. However, it also happily raises the real prospect of the Church of Scotland following the Scottish Episcopal Church in taking concrete steps to allowing gay marriage.

The progress might look slow to some, and compared to 20 years of remarkable cultural and legal change in wider society, it is. But in considering an apology on discrimination against gay people and laying out a realistic path to gay marriage within the church, the theological forum of the Church of Scotland has suggested a serious way for the Kirk to change and it deserves credit, praise and encouragement for doing so.