Kirk touting for business at wedding fairs

Industry: Ministers trying to gain a slice of £80m nuptials cake

The Kirk is to boldly go where it has feared to go before.

Church of Scotland ministers are touting for business at wedding fairs – a move that has been blessed by a top cleric.

The UK wedding industry is thought to be worth £10bn annually.

Visitscotland has estimated that the wedding tourism industry alone is worth £80m to the Scottish economy.

The average cost of a Scottish wedding in 2015/16 came in at £29,904.

The Very Rev Dr John Chalmers – former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and an honorary chaplain to the Queen – says ministers need to attend wedding fairs alongside humanists, florists, cake makers, hotels, holiday companies, photographers and hairdressers in the battle for business.

Figures recently published by the Registrar General for Scotland show the number of weddings conducted by humanist celebrants last year exceeded, for the first time, those conducted by Church of Scotland ministers.

“Almost 40 years ago, as a young minister in the west of Scotland, I could not have imagined such a sea change in society. We conducted weddings week in and week out, it was considered an expectation to attend the reception and act as the master of ceremonies at the top table,” writes Dr Chalmers in next month’s Life and Work, the house magazine of the Kirk.

“Ministers today are taking stalls at wedding fairs in order to offer couples, who may be thinking of getting married, an invitation to include God in the most special event of their lives.

“The trend in relation to funerals is no less concerning, with a huge growth in the market for services conducted by non-religious celebrants.

“This is bread and butter work for the church and we are letting ourselves down badly if we are not letting it be known that both the memory of the deceased and the needs of the family are of the utmost importance to us and that we attend to the needs of those who, after the funeral, still have a significant journey to travel.

“More disturbing still are the statistics in relation to baptism. Baptisms in the Church these days are too rare an occurrence.

“We have shrouded baptism in rules which make this important means of grace the subject of institutional by-laws which, far from inviting people in, actually discourage people from belonging.”

We conducted weddings week in and week out, it was considered an expectation to attend the reception and act as the master of ceremonies