The Queen’s chaplain has criticised a church that allowed a Koran reading during a service, saying that it should apologise to Christians “suffering dreadful persecution at the hands of Muslims”.
The Rev Gavin Ashenden said that the fallout from the decison provided a lesson in the limitations of interfaith dialogue.
Dr Ashenden was responding to the decision by a Glasgow cathedral to allow the reading of a passage from the Koran that teaches that Jesus is not the son of God during a service to mark the feast of the Epiphany on January 6.
Muslims regard Jesus as a prophet but deny the divine nature ascribed to him in Christian teachings.
The Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, the provost of St Mary’s Cathedral, which as a Scottish Episcopal Church is part of the Anglican Communion, called in police after members of the church received “hate-filled messages” from far-right extremists after the service.
The Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, the Most Rev David Chillingworth, said at the weekend that the Scottish Episcopal Church would review the work of St Mary’s. He said the church was “deeply distressed at the offence which has been caused”.
Dr Ashenden has written in a letter to The Times published today that the denigration of Jesus in Christian worship would be called “blasphemy” by some. He said that the reading had been justified on the grounds of improving interfaith relationships. He said, however: “The justification offered that it engages some kind of reciprocity founders on the understandable refusal of Islamic communities to read passages from the Gospel in Muslim prayers announcing the Lordship of Christ.
“Quite apart from the wide distress (some would say blasphemy) caused by denigrating Jesus in Christian worship, apologies may be due to the Christians suffering dreadful persecution at the hands of Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere.
“To have the core of a faith for which they have suffered deeply treated so casually by senior western clergy such as the provost of Glasgow, is unlikely to have a positive outcome.”