An Anglican minister has urged people to pray that Prince George is gay in order to make the Church of England more inclusive.
The Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow, offered his controversial suggestion in a blog written after the news of Prince Harry’s engagement.
In the online letter, he lists strategy ideas for campaigners to change the Church’s opposition to gay marriage.
He concluded: ‘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.’
The Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth (pictured), Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow, said England should pray for Prince George to grow up with a love for ‘fine, young gentlemen’
But his comments about the four-year-old, who is third in line to the throne, were met with outrage by fellow Christians – who condemned them as ‘tasteless’ and ‘sinister’.
Lee Gatiss, director of the Church Society, told Christian Today: ‘To co-opt the Royal children to service a narrow sexual agenda seems particularly tasteless and, I should add, bizarrely illogical on his own grounds.
‘Is he saying no one can “pray the gay away” but you can pray it into someone?’
Susie Leafe, director of Anglican pressure group Reform, said it was clear Rev Holdsworth would ‘use any means to achieve his aim’ of seeing same-sex marriage in church.
She added: ‘It is disappointing that he feels it necessary to bring a four-year-old prince into the argument’.
The minister’s comments about the four-year-old (pictured), who is third in line to the throne, were met with outrage by fellow Christians – who condemned them as ‘tasteless’ and ‘sinister’
The blog was also criticised by Gavin Ashenden, a former chaplain to the Queen and missionary bishop in the Christian Episcopal Church.
He described the suggestion as an ‘unkind and destabilising prayer’, which he said was the ‘theological equivalent of the curse of the wicked fairy in one of the fairy tales’.
The row comes after an article on LGBT website PinkNews suggesting the young prince was a ‘gay icon’ was branded ‘sick’ earlier this year.
Rev Holdsworth is a long time campaigner in favour of gay marriage across the Anglican Communion.
This is not the first time he has caused controversy. In January he invited a Muslim to recite from the Koran during a service at the Cathedral, with the passage including a denial that Jesus was the son of God.