Queen’s chaplain who objected to Qur’an reading in cathedral forced to resign

St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow featured a Qur’an reading denying the divinity of Christ, a core Christian tenet. Rev. Canon Gavin Ashenden objected. He is being forced the resign. The ones who staged the event ought to be resigning, but they are going strong in today’s brave, new, multicultural Britain, which is, of course, the forerunner of Sharia Britain.

An update on this story. “Queen’s chaplain quits over cathedral Koran reading which said ‘not to worship Jesus,'” by Ross Logan, Express, January 22, 2017:

ONE of the Queen’s Chaplains has resigned amid a row over a passage of the Koran read out at a Glasgow cathedral which denies Jesus is the son of God.

Reverend Canon Gavin Ashenden stepped down as one of the monarch’s 33 chaplains in order to have more freedom to “speak out on behalf of the faith”, following discussions with Buckingham Palace.

The controversy centres on an interfaith service held at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral over the Christmas period, where a chapter from the Islamic text was read out.

The chosen verses tell the story of Christ’s birth, but claim he was not the son of God and should not be worshipped as such.

The reading sparked widespread outrage amongst the Christian community, and Police Scotland is currently investigating a series of abusive messages directed at the cathedral on social media.

Speaking to Radio 4’s Sunday programme, Reverend Ashenden said: “The problem with what happened in Glasgow was that although it was presented as a way of building bridges and a way of educating people, it was done badly in the wrong way, in the wrong place, in the wrong context.

“There are number of members of the congregation who have written open letters complaining of the profound upset they experienced as people of the Eucharistic community who had come to worship Christ.

“So to have a reading from the Koran at that point was a fairly serious error for the Christian worshipping community.

“But to choose the reading they chose doubled the error. Of all the passages you might have read likely to cause offence that was one of the most problematic.”

He announced his resignation on his blog, ahead of an the programme’s broadcast.

“After a conversation instigated by officials at Buckingham Palace, I decided the most honourable course of action was to resign,” Reverend Ashenden wrote.

“I have held the position for the last nine years. But over the last few years people who objected to my defending the Christian faith in public wrote to both Lambeth Palace and Buckingham Palace to try to get the association ended.

“When I was confronted with these attempts to silence or defenestrate me, my reaction was to ask ‘in what way is a priest defending the faith on behalf of a monarch who was Defender of the Faith, incongruous or improper?’

“I have come to see that the situation is more complex than that.”…