Scottish church allows reading of Quranic passage denying Jesus is God's son

Jardine Malado Friday, January 13, 2017

Quranic passages denying that Jesus was the Son of God were sung aloud in Arabic at a church in Glasgow, Scotland. | Wikimedia Commons/~crystalina~

A Quranic passage which denies that Jesus was the son of God was sung during a church service in Scotland last week.

The passage from Surah 19 was reportedly sung in Arabic during the Eucharist service at St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow to mark the feast of the Epiphany, according to Express.

The reading was given by a Muslim law student named Madinah Javed at the invitation of the cathedral's provost, Rev. Kelvin Holdsworth.

The verse supposedly stated that Mary was "ashamed" after giving birth to Christ and that Jesus miraculously spoke from his crib claiming he was a "servant of God."

The girl singing the passage concluded the recitation with verses 35 and 36 which is translated as: "It does not befit God that He begets a son, be He glorified. To have anything done, He simply says to it, 'Be', and it is."

The service has been described in a post on the cathedral's Facebook page as a "wonderful event."

Retired Anglican bishop Michael Nazir-Ali condemned the reading, saying it was inappropriate for the feast of the Epiphany, which celebrates the revelation that Jesus was the Son of God.

"It is particularly insensitive to have this passage read in Church on the Feast of the Epiphany when we celebrate not only Christ's manifestation to the gentiles but also his baptism and the divine declaration, 'you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased,'" said Nazir-Ali.

The former bishop urged Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to publicly distance the Church of England as well as the wider Anglican Communion from the event.

The conservative group Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) UK also asked Welby to intervene.

Rev. Dr. Gavin Ashenden, the chaplain to the Queen, has called on Holdsworth to issue an apology and hinted that he should resign.

"Our interfaith relations require both integrity and competence. The strategy in Glasgow appears to have been short of both," Ashenden wrote in a blog post.

A Lambeth Palace spokesman said that the complaints will be passed on to St. Mary's Cathedral, but it stated that the Archbishop has no jurisdiction because the cathedral is outside of the Church of England.