Morality case to be heard by Kirk

swimming baths.

Tapes and transcripts which have been sent to senior Kirk figures,

including the Principal Clerk of the General Assembly, are understood to

support the allegations.

The minister has continued to serve on a Kirk study group on

homosexuality. The development came just as the study group finished its

report, which is understood to endorse same-sex relationships in some

circumstances. The report is now likely to come under intense scrutiny

from the General Assembly board which commissioned it.

The Rev. Angus Wells, 32, associate minister at St Mungo's,

Cumbernauld, was the centre of a double-page feature in the News of the

World last June headed Scandal of Pervert Preacher at Whiteinch Pool.

It described how a reporter had watched sex play between other men and

Mr Wells, who had allegedly boasted that he was a Church of Scotland

minister. He later phoned the undercover reporter and asked him for the

phone number of a rent boy.

His subsequent meeting with the rent boy was tape-recorded.

Transcripts were made of what went on between them. Last week these were

hand-delivered to Kirk officials. It is understood that they could have

fallen foul of obscenity laws if they had been sent through the mail.

When the disclosures were first made, Mr Wells was interviewed by a

group from the Presbytery of Falkirk including its clerk, the Rev.

Duncan McClements, who is convener of the 10-strong study group on

sexuality set up by the Board of Social Responsibility upon which Mr

Wells serves.

Mr McClements said yesterday that no further action had been proposed

after the group met with Mr Wells ''because no complaint was registered,

no evidence was brought forward, and therefore there was no case to

answer''. At that meeting Mr Wells was accompanied by a lawyer and said

nothing in answer to the allegations.

Asked why he had not taken up an offer from the News of the World

reporter to provide evidence in support of its allegations, Mr

McClements said that the offer had not been made. When pressed, he

agreed that he had been offered help by the reporter. On the question of

a cover-up he replied: ''People are responsible for what they say and do

and what they read and understand.''

Asked if it was unwise for someone at the centre of such allegations

to continue on the study group, Mr McClements said: ''There is still in

this country a principle which I am aware applies to the Church -- that

people are innocent until proved guilty.''

He confirmed that, as a result of a complaint made by a Glasgow

minister, the Rev. Jim Robertson, and the receipt of the transcripts by

himself and the Rev. Dr Robert McGhee, the presbytery's superintendence

committee convener, that a meeting would be held on Wednesday which

would recommend action to the next prebytery meeting on January 25.

When it was suggested to Mr McClements that the newspaper article

itself constituted a fama clamosa (a term in Kirk law for a public

scandal) he replied that the presbytery had decided that it did not.

However, The Herald understands that when the presbytery was told about

the case last year no names were mentioned.

At a subsequent presbytery meeting last October Mr Wells gave up his

job at Cumbernauld in order to pursue further study at Oxford University

and was granted a full ministerial practising certificate. Although

since then he has taken no part in the work of the study group, he has

remained a member of it.

The final report was drafted last week and will now go to the Board of

Social Responsibility at its meeting in Crieff Hydro next month for

endorsement before being printed in the book of reports to this year's

General Assembly.

Other members of the study group of 10 include the former Church and

Nation convener, the Rev. Norman Shanks, and the former Moderator, the

Very Rev. Professor Robert Davidson, both of whom are known to favour a

more liberal stance on moral questions. Mr Wells was added to the number

when he spoke in favour of looking afresh at sexuality issues at the

1992 General Assembly.

However, the board is likely to view the study group's report with

some hostility and conservative evangelicals, already irritated by the

present Moderator's recent comments on the Virgin Birth and strongly

represented on the board, will see it as a chance to assert their

concern.

The Rev. Bill Wallace, convener of the Board of Social Responsibility,

confirmed that he was aware of the development over Mr Wells and that

the study group's report would be vetted on February 10.

He has turned down an offer from the Arrangements Committee to have

the sexuality report considered alongside one from the Panel on Doctrine

on marriage during a ''conference session'' which would allow the

General Assembly to debate sexual issues without being tied to specific

positions.

The two reports are likely to be the subject of heated debate long

before they reach the General Assembly. This debate is likely to be even

more acrimonious than the recent difference between conservatives and

liberals over the Virgin Birth.

Questions will be asked about why Mr Wells was not asked to consider

his position on the study group when the allegations about his private

life were made. Last night he could not be contacted and his twin

brother, the Rev. John Wells of Morningside, Edinburgh, was on a

fortnight's holiday from his parish.