A prominent Anglican minister on Thursday urged Christians to pray for Prince George—the four-year-old son of Prince William and his wife Catherine, and third in line to the British throne—to be gay to advance the cause of same-sex marriage.
The provost of St. Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow, the Very Rev. Kelvin Holdsworth, wrote a blog post in which he wrote about gay marriage, and then posted his comments on Twitter the next day, the Times of London reported. Holdsworth is gay and was a leader in the successful campaign to legalize gay marriage in the Scottish Episcopal Church, a province of the Anglican Communion separate from the Church of England, which does not marry gay couples.
In his blog, Holdsworth called on believers to lobby both the General Synod of the Church of England and the government to promote pro-LGBT measures, but he added that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge having a gay son could speed up the process.
"They do in England have another unique option, which is to pray in the privacy of their hearts (or in public if they dare) for the Lord to bless Prince George with a love, when he grows up, of a fine young gentleman," Holdsworth wrote.
"A royal wedding might sort things out remarkably easily, though we might have to wait 25 years for that to happen," he added. "Who knows whether that might be sooner than things might work out by other means?"
Queen Elizabeth II's former honorary chaplain, the Rev. Gavin Ashenden, called on believers to pray for Prince George "to be married and have children." He said Holdsworth's prayer is more akin to a curse.
"It is not a kind prayer. It is not a blessing, it's more like a curse from a fairytale," Ashenden said. "I would say it's profoundly un-Christian."
Holdsworth also stoked controversy earlier this year when he had a passage from the Quran read during an Epiphany service. The Quranic passage contradicts the Christian doctrine that Jesus is the Son of God, as Islam considers him only a prophet, prompting Christians to call for Holdsworth to receive discipline.
Holdsworth also considers sports to be "nationalistic, sectarian, sexist, and homophobic," and he is a failed politician for the Liberal Democratic Party.
Holdsworth maintains that the Church of England should have a more inclusive doctrine about marriage in general. He stated recently that the engagement of Prince Harry to actress Meghan Markle, who is divorced, provides an opening for the church to liberalize canon law on marriage, since divorcees are only supposed to marry under exceptional circumstances.
"The trouble for the Archbishop is that the same canon law (Canon B30) that he and the other bishops are prepared to find a way of ignoring when it comes to a divorcee marrying in church also would be said to be the reason gay couples can't get married in church." https://t.co/mROmWdtleG
— Kelvin Holdsworth (@thurible) December 1, 2017