The Presbyterian Church in Ireland has loosened ties with the Church of Scotland, its mother Church, over the latter’s moves towards recognising same-sex marriage. The Church of Scotland recently instructed officials to consider changes to its laws to allow its ministers preside at same-sex-marriage ceremonies.

At the Presbyterian General Assembly in Belfast this week, delegates voted to no longer accept invitations to attend the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland and the United Reformed Church and to no longer issue invitations to those two denominations to attend the Irish Presbyterian Church’s own General Assembly.

The vote “demonstrated that a majority of assembly members felt that both denominations have drifted far from biblical truth in relation to marriage, and were in fact ignoring the authority of scripture,” said assembly clerk Rev Trevor Gribben.

“Both are now moving towards a position where so-called same-sex marriage can be performed in the context of their worship services. Our church is very clear that marriage, as defined in God’s Word, is between one man and one woman and significantly it is God’s Word that is authoritative,” he said.