‘Crisis’ for Christianity right across Scotland’

The Church of Scotland currently has 1,023 charges and 753 parish ministers serving those charges with 236 vacancies.

Recent figures revealed that just 7.2% of Scotland’s population regularly attend church which was down from 17% in 1984.

The last census in 2011 showed that just over half of the population considered themselves religious, with 24% identifying as Church of Scotland Christians and 14% as Roman Catholics.

The Scottish household survey in 2016 suggested those numbers were falling, with those who identify as religious now in the minority at 48.5%.

The trend was given further credence last year when the 2016 Scottish Church Census revealed that there are now around 390,000 regular church goers north of the border, down from 854,000 in 1984.

The number of congregations dropped from 4,100 to 3,700 during the same period, while the research also revealed that 42% of churchgoers were aged over 65 and predominantly male.

It led lead researcher Dr Peter Brierley to proclaim that the figures indicated a “crisis” for Christianity across Scotland amid predictions that the downward trend will continue.

The fortunes of the church have gone up and down over the centuries.

Attendances were high from the 1900s to the 1950s. But back in the 19th Century during the industrial revolution, attendances were low.

The challenges now are how to engage with people in the digital world.

Services are now being streamed live on the internet by some churches while the Messy Church – a new kind of family-oriented church held on a day other than Sunday – is a new way to connect with the community.