The Slow Death of the Church of Scotland – Accelerates
by David Robertson, theweeflea:
There is some really sad, but inevitable, news coming from Dundee this week. I have just read in The Courier that another three churches are to merge in Dundee.
The Church of Scotland congregations in Broughty Ferry – St James, St Luke and the New Kirk are to become one congregation. Why does that matter? It is the continuation of a trend in Dundee, and throughout Scotland of church decline – especially – but not soley in the Church of Scotland. In 2020 after being in Dundee as a minister for 20 years I worked out that one church per year had closed for each of those years. It was a desperate picture of decline – and yet very few people in the church were prepared to face up to it. Although I recall one contact at ‘121’ (the C of S administrative HQ) telling me that the C of S had no plans for growth, only ‘managed decline’.
Reasons for Decline?
This latest story sees the same pattern of denial, excuse and defeat being repeated. The inability to grasp reality seems endemic within the Church. The Presbytery clerk tells us his reasons for decline. It’s the falling birthrate, the changing nature of the population in Scotland, the fact that immigrants are not likely to be Christian and if they are, not Presbyterian; and fewer youth organisations. The solution is that the church needs ‘to change many aspects of how it is run’ and embrace digital technology in order to be more accessible to younger worshippers.
Please right-click links to open in a new window.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
