FIVE years ago, his appointment to Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeen as the Church of Scotland’s first openly gay minister ignited a row that threatened to engulf the whole of the Kirk.

Now, with the General Assembly having approved plans to allow the ordination of openly gay ministers in civil partnerships, the Rev Scott Rennie said he thought the Kirk would eventually resolve the issue of same-sex marriage.

“I have no doubt that in the next while the Church will have some reflection on marriage and marriage as regards same-sex couples,” he said in an interview with The Scotsman.