A group of evangelical Christians have been forced to apologise to a gay minister for a smear campaign mounted against him.
'Forward Together', an evangelical movement within the Church of Scotland, admitted spreading misinformation about the homosexual minister and his estranged wife.
The group told its members that minister Scott Rennie had left his wife and daughter to move in with another man at the manse in Aberdeen.
Douglas Cranston, chairman of Forward Together, admitted this was wrong.
The U-turn comes after Mr Rennie, who is hoping to become the new minister at Queen's Cross Church in Aberdeen, took exception to the comments and instructed his solicitors to act accordingly.
The evangelical group are opposed to Aberdeen-born Mr Rennie, 37, being appointed the new minister at the church in the city's west end because he has openly admitted that he intends to live in the manse with his new partner, known only as David.
In communications to members Mr Cranston stated: "It is difficult to understand what would constitute an unacceptable lifestyle in terms of our ordination of vows if a man who leaves his wife and child and sets up home with another man as his partner is deemed acceptable in this ministry."
But the minister's solicitors informed the group's chairman that Mr Rennie's wife had, in fact, actually left him. Furthermore, he did not meet his new male partner, a moral and religious education teacher at a secondary school in Aberdeen, until two years later.
The evangelical group were then forced to make an apology to the minister.
In a statement the group said: "Forward Together apologises unreservedly for giving the impression that Mr Rennie left his wife and child for his present male partner and for any distress this may have caused Mr Rennie, his wife and his family."
The group also paid Mr Rennie's small legal costs.
But church group Affirmation Scotland said the apology did not go far enough.
Chaplain Lindsay Biddle said: "Scott Rennie is a strong and brave individual with a lot of integrity and, rather than damaging him, this episode reflects badly on Forward Together."
Mr Rennie was divorced by the time he came to terms with his sexuality, which he says has made him better at his job because he understands the complexity of real people's lives.
Some of the 12 Aberdeen Presbytery members who are trying to block his appointment to the Queen's Cross Church are members of Forward Together.
The Kirk's General Assembly is still debating whether to allow Mr Rennie, who is minister of Brechin Cathedral, to be appointed to the Aberdeen church on May 23.
The Presbytery of Lochcarron and Skye have launched a motion calling on the Kirk "not to accept for training, ordain, admit, readmit, induct or introduce to any ministry of the church anyone involved in a sexual relationship outside of marriage between a man and a woman."
However, the congregation and kirk session of Queen's Cross Church have been fully supportive of the gay minister's appointment.
Forward Together spokesman Ian Watson said an "honest mistake" had been made.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article